Recovery, Discipleship, and Spiritual Warfare Purity 1163

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 United States Marines training for combat in the foreground of a cloud-capped mountain under blue skies comes to us from Tammy Lynn Clark, who shared this screen capture still from a video of her, of her daughter Rachel firing off a heavy machine gun while on maneuvers somewhere in Japan near Mount Fuji. Well, it's Wednesday, and when I saw Tammy Lynn watching the, uh, the Rachel's training video over the weekend, I told her to send it to me because of Mount Fuji's scenic beauty and because I thought it would be a great scene to give us a visual reminder that we have arrived at another hump day. Wednesdays are not only the middle of the work week, since May 10th They the are also the day that the Celebrate Freedom growth group meets at Starpoint Church, where sincere Christians go to battle with their hurts, habits, and hangups with the hope of sustained victory and increased freedom. Our little group that is fueled by an eclectic mix of materials from Celebrate Recovery, Freedom in Christ Ministries, Deeper Walk International, the Bible, and the leading of the Holy Spirit is promoted as a recovery group at our church. But I am quick to point out to new members that I took on the leadership role and named the group Celebrate Freedom with the understanding that the emphasis was going to be on overcoming and experiencing our freedom in Christ through Christian discipleship principles. As disciples, we come to Celebrate Freedom to ask the Lord to help us and to teach us how to live the new life that God gave us as new creations. When we put our faith in Jesus. I often share the diagram of the virtuous cycle to visually remind the participants of our, of our group that we are no longer going to be trapped in the vicious cycles of our pre-Christ existence that were based on the world, the flesh, and the devil's lies. The emphasis at Celebrate Freedom is to agree with the truth of God's Word and what it says about who we are in Christ and to take personal responsibility to increasingly and continuously live according to God's will for our lives. To become the people that He made us to be. To be more like Jesus. But just as Marines have to be disciplined in knowing how to fight and be aware of the enemy's tactics, we are— we as Christians have to not only know about who we are in Christ and endeavor to live righteous Christian lives, We also have to be aware that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle for our minds, as scripture clearly warns us of the unseen spiritual forces of darkness that are hell-bent on a campaign of deceiving, tempting, accusing, and killing us. James 4:7 tells us, "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." As disciples of Jesus Christ, we not only have to choose to do what is right and humble ourselves and submit to God's will and ways for our lives. We also have to break any sinful bonds or permissions that we have in our lives that allow the enemy to torment us. That includes renouncing any lies we have believed and any sinful associations we may have had, as well as repenting of any known sin in our lives. Unfortunately, the gospel that is proclaimed in most churches today today leaves out the reality of spiritual warfare or the need to repent as a part of the Christian life. What results are, and I know because I lived it, are Christians who understand that they are sinners saved by grace but have no conviction to completely submit to God when it comes to their habitual sins. I know when I got saved, I thought it was truly a miracle that God would forgive and accept me since I was a sinner who who was entirely incapable of changing. God was so gracious that he welcomed me— or I thought God was so gracious that he welcomed me— into his kingdom with no strings attached, and I could go right on sinning without the worry that it would send me to hell. But that gospel smells like smoke. And while God's grace is amazing, when we study the Word of God, we realize that God's whole counsel advises us to turn from our sins and to be holy as He is holy. Whoops! So, so much for the idea of ultra-grace or cheap grace or greasy grace. God's Word and Christ's sinless example make it clear that we are to crucify the flesh and all its passions and walk in the light and out of the— and out of our former darkness. We are not supposed to stay in the darkness. So we have to renew our minds to the truth of God's Word and learn from and follow Jesus's example by walking in the Spirit. But the emphasis I need to remember to make more often is that there is also an enemy at work in our thought lives that wants to lead us astray. The spiritual force of darkness can shoot mental error arrows of temptation, condemnation, accusation, and deception. Deception right into our minds. And so we must be well-versed in the truth of God's word to know which thoughts are ours, which thoughts are come from God, and which thoughts come from the enemy. If we are thinking obscene, blasphemous, or tempting thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere and are against what we want to think about, uh, we have to realize those thoughts are not from God and they are not from us. Persistent So, thoughts that condemn us or that lead us into temptation could be from us, but they are probably demonically inspired. So, which is it? It doesn't really matter because the response that defeats these thoughts is the same whether the origin of that stinking thinking is us or the devil. The remedy is the truth of God's Word. Just as Jesus defeated Satan in the desert by challenging the enemy with the truth of God's Word, We can overcome temptation or condemnation in the same way. When we are condemned or tempted, our defense is to stand on the truth of who we are in Christ and to resist the devil with that truth. In Christ, we are accepted, secure, and significant, so anything that would tell us otherwise is rejected in the light of our new lives in Christ. Similarly, tempting thoughts are rejected because we know that we are being tempted to go against God's word, know the negative consequences for doing so, reject those activities as something that is no longer a part of who we are in Christ, and we reject the temptation because we don't want anything to disrupt the harmony of our relationship with God. When we live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the power to make good choices with the way we live our lives, and we can recognize the thoughts that are not of us and not of God. We can take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ because we are in Christ. We can now recognize and resist the enemy's ways that always lead to pain, shame, and guilt. And choose the Lord's way that leads to peace, joy, and freedom. So recognize the fact that you may have some bad habits that bring shame or guilt, but also remember— agree that God has given you the power to choose his truth and to walk in his way of life where victory is possible and where freedom reigns. Today's Bible verses— or is it just one? It's just one verse— comes from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on anger and hot temper. Today's verse is Ephesians 4:26 from the NIV, which— New International Version— which says In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Today's verse falls under the 12th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on anger. Um, and that 12th point is: Handle anger in a godly way; do not let the sun go down on your anger. Today's verse acknowledges that anger as an emotion will happen. This world is broken by sin and things just aren't right. It would be unnatural if we never experienced anger in the face of the evil that men do or from the chaotic circumstances that bring suffering into our lives. But the Word of God tells us that although being angry can be expected, we are instructed not to stay in our anger more than a day, as Today's verse tells us to not let the sun go down while we are still angry. The implication is that we are to practice forgiveness and trust in the Lord to help us to work out solutions to the situations that make us angry, or to accept them for what they are. Getting and staying angry overnight will not help us. Staying angry will only disturb our sleep and possibly make us all the angrier the next day. So agree with God's word and don't let the sun go down on your anger. Instead, trust in the Lord to help you and seek his godly ways to overcome your anger instead. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.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 A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit: as we continue sharing from Chapter 27, The Spirit Transforming, and today's topic is the marks, marks of transformation. So you want to see what the marks of transformation are, maybe whether or not you're transformed, go to, uh, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. And as always, at the end of today's blog post, you'll see a little encouragement to join our Victor Over the Darkness, the bondage breaker, our freedom in a series of discipleship classes via the M.t. for Christ 247 podcast. Those teachings are based on the word of God and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson from Freedom in Christ Ministries, and they just happen to be transformative in my life. And thus I became a Community Freedom Ministry Associate with Freedom in Christ Ministries and led a freedom ministry at my old church and had the presence of mind to record those, uh, record those teachings and to share them on the podcast. Um, and now they, they're shared on YouTube as well. And, you know, amazingly, they're the most viewed material on our YouTube channel, was those, those classes. So we're, we're encouraged that some people are checking them out and they're getting equipped and encouraged through them. And possibly growing in their freedom in Christ. So that's what this little ministry is all about. It's a ministry of encouragement. It's the ministry of reconciliation that tells us that we can have peace with God and we can overcome our spiritual and personal conflicts through prayer and repentance and agreeing to turn to the Lord and walk in His ways. And it recognizes the reality of the spiritual forces of darkness that must be resisted and cast out. So we're not alone in this battle. The Lord is with us, and we can support one another as we go and encourage one another in our troop, in our Yeah, we're all in the troop together, I guess. Anyway, um, we can encourage each other in our walk of faith and the battle that we have to face, because God's given us the victory. We just have to agree with it and walk in it and, uh, you know, keep going. So we're looking forward to tonight. Scott Salvador has agreed to lead tonight's group because I'll be going away on Thursday. To the Deeper Walk International Conference early in the morning. So it's going to be a full day today of work and ministry, and then waking up at the wee hours of the morning tomorrow to, uh, to get out on a plane and, uh, head to Indiana. Wow, it's exciting. Um, you know, and that's, that's it. Um, part of our, part of our mission is to follow where the Lord leads us. And, you know, if he's not leading you anywhere but the church on Sunday, you might, you might be missing what he's telling you. Um, there's a whole wide world out there to see and to explore and to share the hope of the Gospel. Um, it's where we can go and get equipped at various Christian ministries and, you know, mission trips and things like that. So we encourage you to open your mind and open your heart to what the Lord has for you and to follow wherever he leads you, you know, to seek God's will for your life and to follow it. Um, well, today is Wednesday. I do have to work and I have to make sure I don't forget anything, as when I leave River House today, I won't be back until Monday., and I am traveling to another state, so you got to make sure you have everything. So we're gonna, we're gonna close in prayer and, uh, make sure, endeavor not to forget anything. So let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for another day to, to speak about freedom and victory and to encourage my brothers and sisters Christ tonight at Celebrate Freedom. Um, Lord, we just pray for anyone who's listening or, or reading today's message, that you'd come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. We pray for you to bless, um, Scott Salvador as he chooses, uh, as he has answered the call to lead us tonight and Celebrate Freedom. And we pray for all the, the members of our Celebrate Freedom group, um, that that they would be encouraged to come and that you would protect and guide them as they come tonight. And Lord, we really are praying, we're praying for everyone, but we're really praying for the people who've registered for our group who've never, never come to a meeting. Amazingly, there's probably about 5, 6 people who have registered for our group and have never arrived and never deregistered. Um, they continue to get emails from me reminding them of the meetings, but they have yet to come. And Lord, we just pray for the new people who've registered over the last couple weeks, uh, that they would come tonight. And the ones who registered all the way back in May, uh, who never showed up, um, and it's been 21 weeks. So Lord, we just think— we just pray for them regardless of whether or not they show tonight. Um, but we just pray that you're with them and, um, that you'd lead them in the way they— the way you would have them go, the way that leads to peace and freedom. And Lord, of course, as always, we pray for you to go before us today. We want you to open our eyes to the things we need to see and help us to do the things we need to do, because Lord, we desperately need your help, as we are often reminded of how inadequate weak we are, um, ill-equipped we can be at times to face the challenges of our days. Um, Lord, it's no mystery to me that if it wasn't for you, um, I wouldn't have any peace, I wouldn't have any joy. But in you, even though it's not always been an easy road, we found the best path for our life, and we're extremely happy with what you've done with us, Lord. And we'll, we'll, we've, we will follow you the rest of our days and encourage people to follow you as well. Um, Lord, so we just thank you, we praise you, we love you. And Lord, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.