Reflecting the Light and Finding Our Strength in Waiting - Purity 1501

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of a soft pastel drawing of the sun shining over the Cornwall seacoast comes to us from our man in the UK, Philip Pan, who reproduced a friend's holiday photograph into this stunning piece of art and shared it on social media yesterday. Well, it's Tuesday, and just as Philip used his artistic talents to reflect the beauty he saw in his friend's vacation photo, the Lord is seeking to use us to reflect his goodness. Mercy, righteousness, and love. God gave us the revelation of Jesus Christ and saved us for a reason: to welcome us into his eternal royal family and to participate in the family business of spreading the gospel and doing good works to give God glory. We are called to be the church, the ecclesia, which literally means those who are the called-out ones.

We are to be different, uh, from those around us.

We are to reflect God's image and to become more and more like Jesus, who lived a holy and sinless life. While we aren't expected to, to be instantly perfect like Jesus, we are called to reflect and reproduce God's light. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 tells us, abstain from every form of evil. But the hard work of sanctification is not something we have to do all by ourselves. The next verses in that passage of scripture indicates that this sanctification work is a cooperative effort, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 goes on to say, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of the— our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Paul prays that the God of peace himself will sanctify us completely, that we can trust him to help us because he is faithful and will do it. So, uh, our ability, uh, and strength for living the Christian life is found in yielding to the Lord and being the people he made us to be. Our salvation and sanctification doesn't seem to be about us doing as much as it seems to be about us being, uh, by us reflecting and reproducing the light and love of God. The In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotional, uh, for today touches on our waiting on and yielding to the Lord, and so I'm sharing it to encourage us all to receive God's power for transformation. Uh, Dr. Charles Stanley writes, strength comes from waiting. Access to God's power is achieved not by moving faster, but by going slower. Exhaustion is a byproduct of overcommitted schedules and endless responsibilities. That's not what our Father wants for us. He offers a radically different mode of living and gives his followers renewed strength. Those who wait on the Lord are promised his supernatural energy. In fact, scripture says it will surpass the natural strength and endurance of the young. Contrary to what we might think, access to this power is achieved not by moving faster, but by going slower, taking the time to focus on God, seek his direction, and ask for his strength to accomplish what he's calling us to do. There is no earthly explanation for what God is willing and able to achieve in, in and through a yielded human being. His Holy Spirit is like a powerful and refreshing gust of wind that enables us to soar like eagles. The next time you are at the point of exhaustion, take some time to focus on the Lord. Are you in step with him? Or have you gone ahead on your own? Align your pace with his, taking the time to rest when he wants you to, and give this— and receive the energy he freely offers to those who walk obediently in his will. That was from Dr. Charles Stanley, and I say amen. After a time of repeated failures, I once asked the Lord, how many times can someone keep falling in the same hole? Well, I can't say what I got was a direct line from God. I seem to hear, how many times can you complain about it? Oh, that was harsh. But it caused me to realize that I had to stop giving myself grace for repeated failures and had to yield myself to surrendering my, you know, surrendering myself to God's power. I had to stop trying to fix myself and had to start relying on God's power to change me. I had to believe the truth that he had already set me free and had to stop believing the lie that I would always struggle with this. I had to simply be the person God made me to be and to rest in his presence and power to experience my freedom. I simply had to yield. So if you were exhausted, give it a rest. Stop doing what you're doing and start being the person God made you to be. Choose to trust and obey and yield yourself to him. So if you are exhausted, yeah, stop doing and being— choose to wait.

Yeah, sorry.

Start being the person God made you to be. Choose to wait, trust, obey, and yield yourself to God.

Amen.

Um, today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on giving. Today's verse is Matthew 6:33 from the New American Standard Bible. The word of God says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Today's verse falls under the sixth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on giving. The sixth point, the sixth point is seek the first, seek first the kingdom of God. Today's Bible verse gives us the instruction of the Lord to seek him and his righteousness first. While this verse may not seem to be directly related to, to giving, it is appropriate for this context because unless we seek, seek God's kingdom and righteousness first, we will be hard-pressed for the motivation to give to others. God is the original cheerful giver, as he has given us life and made us, made a way for us to be at peace with him even though we were sinners. Jesus went to the cross because of the joy set before him, the joy of setting us free and giving us eternal life. But it was Jesus's love for us and to do the Father's will that was— that, that gave him the ability to take the cup of suffering on our behalf. Uh, when we seek God's kingdom, we will be amazed at how much we are willing to give of our time and treasure. Because of the joy set before us, the joy of sharing God's love. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.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. Allford. Uh, yeah, yesterday I jumped the gun, uh, saying that Revelation 21 was the last chapter in the New Testament, but it's actually Revelation 22.— so I apologize for that. But this will be the last entry from According to Your Word from Stephen F. Alford, as it is actually the last chapter of the New Testament. And from that chapter, um, Stephen Alford shares a portion of verse 7, which says, 'Behold, I am coming quickly.' And Stephen Alford writes, this beautiful expression lays emphasis on three great things that are the believer's portion when Christ comes quickly. The word behold calls attention to these. Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy. Christ's coming is going to be a time of rejoicing. It will be blessed for those who keep the sayings of God. Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me.

Verse 12.

Christ's coming is going to be a time of rewarding. This also calls the believer's attention. And surely I am coming quickly.

Amen.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Verse 20. The word surely is a much stronger word.

Of all facts, this is the greatest. The same Jesus who was taken up from you in heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.

From Acts 1:11. What a blessed certainty.

And then Alford ends by praying, help me to always be ready, watchful, and busy about my Father's business, for in the twinkling of an eye— and, uh, that was from Stephen F. Alford.

And, uh, yeah, um, the culmination of, uh, the ministry is going to be Jesus coming back, um, to establish his kingdom on the earth. And return just as he left from the sky. And it's going to be amazing. It'll be a blessed day and it'll be full of rewards as Christ will come to reward the faithful for believing in him and will have us participate with him in his coming kingdom. So we look forward to that.

And we always ask the question, You know, have you surrendered fully to God so you can participate in his kingdom? Participation in his kingdom is for right now and right here. And you know, by surrendering yourself to the Lord and yielding to him, you discover a strength and power you didn't have on your own.

Um, God works with us, and our sanctification is won when we, through faith and through the power of the Holy Spirit, meaning we believe it, then we are somehow given the power to live it out as our hearts change, uh, to, to follow the Lord's will.

Um, one of the things the Lord put me as part of his will was the, uh, Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which meets tomorrow night at 6:30 PM in the Capital District.

And so it's available for anybody who wants to join our Christian recovery and discipleship community, uh, at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park. So we invite you to come out and join us.

Uh, beyond that, next week we'll be getting— we'll be getting Grace for the Holidays, an online teaching and support group for men that'll be on, uh, at 6:30, uh, on Monday nights. Um, basically we're going to be going through the Grace course, which is 6 lessons on God's grace, and, um, we're going to be going through that material and encouraging what meet one another, uh, starting next Monday, uh, less than a week from today, uh, we'll be, uh, beginning our first session. So if it's not too late to sign up, for any men who are interested, go to mtforchrist.com and sign on—

sign up under the group events teaching page, um, and we'll see you next week.

Um, beyond that, if you can't make it for the holidays, maybe we'll see you in the new year. Um, we are happy to announce the Freedom in Christ course that we'll be facilitating, uh, for Freedom in Christ Ministries is open for registration, and I already have 3 people registered for the course.

So we're, we're encouraging you to register now as registration ends on December 9th.

Um, yeah, so it ends on the 9th, we begin on January 7th, 2025, and we look forward to another A Season of Freedom in Christ, uh, with ficm.org.

You can go there to register.

Um, beyond that, we invite anyone and everyone to go to our YouTube page, uh, M.t. Clark 247, and go to our playlist page where you can find teachings from us from—

for The Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course, um, among many other different, uh, uh, playlists that we offer. Um, we offer those because we believe you can find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of those classes and applying the teachings to your life.

Um, and, uh, you know, part of that, you know, part of the theme is always surrender. And so we ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? You're making yourself available for the Holy Spirit to come in and fill your life with meaning and purpose and goodness and love.

Um, you know, when you start to follow the Lord, you receive a power, um, that you never knew you had, and he gives you a meaning, purpose, a way to navigate through this world that, uh, makes things amazing. So we encourage you to do that.

So if you are empty for Christ, we say keep on walking and talking with God.

If not, we invite you to pray, to ask the Lord to reveal himself and, and to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Um, we believe in prayer. We know it changes things. Um, we've seen too much to disbelieve, and, uh, that's why we pray every day, like right now.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you've done for us, Lord, for the new life you've given us in Christ and the purpose you given us, Lord, to, to follow you.

Um, Lord, we, we pray for anyone listening or reading today's message, that they come alongside you and if, uh, and you come alongside them, uh, for their prayer requests and their walk of faith. And we're praying for you to go before us today too, Lord. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we definitely need help with that. So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.