Relationship Recovery – Three Relationships that Need to End - Purity 1261

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 the Temple of Apollo in ancient Corinth comes to us from my pastor, Roscoe Lilly, who shared this photo on social media back on January 19th, commenting that he found it fascinating, the juxtaposition of the broken-down Temple of Apollo Apolo facing a church that worships Jesus. Jesus that Paul preached in Corinth is still worshipped 2,000 years later all around the world. He referenced Acts 18:4-11. Although Roscoe didn't say this, I will, I will. And Apolo, is he worshipped? Not so much. Well, it's Thursday— it's Tuesday. I wish it was Thursday. And I love my pastor, I love that my pastor had a biblical focus even on his vacation and shared it with his friends on social media, showing us that there really is no time off from our faith. Our lives as followers of Jesus Christ are to be an ongoing expression of our relationship to God, where we appreciate where it all began in history with our salvation and how it continues right up until today. Our relationship with God doesn't end And because he is our creator and redeemer, it is the most important thing about us. Our church was blessed to have Pastor Roscoe back this week, and he delivered a message for the ages because it stressed an important application of trying to live as a Christian, as it faced the hard truth that while our relationship with God will never end, the fact that we are trying to follow the Lord may cause us to need to put up boundaries or even end relationships with toxic people. I'm sharing a link on the blog today that will take you to that message, and I encourage anyone who has difficult or toxic people in their lives to watch it. As we follow the Lord on the path of Christian discipleship, we will inevitably come to crossroads in our journey where we will realize that people in our lives aren't walking with us and will choose to leave us, or we will have to make the decision to leave their company. Pastor Roscoe's message preached on the 3 types of relationships that need to end, stating that it should— that we should end relationships where: 1, people are influencing us negatively; 2, God is moving people out of our life; And 3, people— where people are toxic, where they have a murderous spirit, where all they seem to do is want to kill, steal, or destroy everything good in your life to serve themselves. Your friends in low places that drag you down, remind you of your pre-Christ sinful life, and want to keep you there meet all 3 criteria in my book. When we come to Christ We die, become new creations, and something we need to— and sometimes we need to say goodbye to relationships that would distract us from the life that God has for us. And because we never want to think of our Christian lives as just involving the things we lose or the things we can't do anymore, quote unquote, we look to fulfill our legitimate needs needs for relationships and fun by replacing our old toxic relationships and habits with new ones that will cause us to grow and thrive in the abundant life that God has for us. The loss of family and friend relationships that are toxic can be painful, but God provides us with the body of Christ to give us a new family and new friends that we can do life with, where the people influence us positively where we can see how God has moved them into our lives and how they are the opposite of toxic, where they have a life-giving spirit that fills you, that fills your life with peace, joy, and thanksgiving at having them in your life. Do you have a lot of relationships like that? I do. And the reason I do is, as different as all my friends are from one another, is because we all have Jesus in common. I would have never met any of the people I consider as my friends, or real— really my family, my spiritual family that I have in my life now, with the exception of my biological family, if it wasn't for Jesus. Some of them are reading this message or hearing this message right now, you know, the ones who listen to my podcast, I read my blog I consider you my friends because your presence encourages me that we're on the right path here. Although, you know, the Lord will encourage us in that because this is the right way to follow Him. My ministry is one of encouragement because that is what the Lord has done in my life. He called me, saved me, and moved me into a new life. And so I encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ and anyone who will listen to seek the Lord and His will for your life because of the joy and peace that comes from living with Him at the center of your life. It may be a lonely road at times, but if you are walking with the Lord, He will bring people into your life through the local church, social media, and wherever He calls you to go for work or ministry. When we carry the Lord's love and wisdom into our lives, we encourage and remind everyone we meet of the goodness of God and the hope we have in Jesus. So if your peace and joy in the Lord is being hindered by people who influence you negatively or are toxic, realize that God may not lead them out of your life, but may be indicating that you will have to do your part to find your freedom by making the difficult decision to end the relationship yourself. Acts of faith and sacrifices are a thing in our walk with the Lord. When we act in faith and do the difficult things to be true to our relationship with God rather than man, we grow closer to the Lord, and we are invariably blessed by the absence of negative things and people, and the— and blessed by the addition or presence of the good people and things we choose to focus on as part of our new lives in Christ. So go into relationship recovery by having the difficult conversation to say it's finished and putting up the appropriate boundaries to either limit or eliminate completely the the presence of people in your life who impact you negatively, are being moved out of your life by God, or who are, let's face it, toxic. God makes us new creations in Christ, so say goodbye to the old and keep walking and talking with God to say hello to the abundant life of love, peace, and joy that he has for you. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on communication, gossip, and lying. And today's verse is Proverbs 17:28 from the New American Standard Bible. The Word of God says, even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent. Today's verse is the fifth of five passages of scripture that fall under the fifth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. That 5th point is: Be quick to listen, slow to speak. Today's verse encourages us to at least appear wise by choosing to remain silent. Oh, the stupid things that I have said that I wish I hadn't said. Remember, you won't regret the stupid things you don't say. Wiser people than I have indicated that we should stop and take a pause before everything we say. We pause to think about what we are going to say and whether or not we need to say it at all and whether we need to say it now. Asking those questions in our minds— do I need to say this? Do I need to say this now?— could save us a lot of grief. And we may even see that we are wiser by choosing to remain silent. 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 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. This is a collection of devotional journals from 1940 40 and 41. And these journals, basically these journal entries, Alford prompted us to read a chapter of scripture and then make some commentary. Today's chapter is Matthew 21, and from that entire chapter he, he quotes Matthew 21:18, which says, 'He was hungry.' And Stephen F. Alford writes, truly great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. That he, the Jehovah Jireh, should hunger is a mystery that baffles the finite mind. Yet it is a precious thought and fact, for having passed the way of all men, he can now be touched with every feeling of my infirmity. Having been tested, he can now succor. Yes, my blessed Lord hungered, slept, wearied, wept, sorrowed, suffered, and died. Praise his wonderful name. And Alfred ends with the, with the prayer: Give me the power and grace, O Lord, to walk even as you did walk in this scene, despite the fact that you were perfectly human. Amen. Yeah, here, you know, Alford's pointing to the fact that Jesus was a man like, like, like us. He was a person. He was incarnate in the flesh. He had physical needs. He's— as he writes, he hungered, he slept, he wearied, he wept, he sorrowed, suffered, and died. Why did God do this? Why did Jesus come? For us? Well, he came to save us and to give us a new life through his death and resurrection. The reason why he became a person is so we could relate to God. You know, God was pulling us into a relationship with him, and so he wanted to be relatable. He wanted to come and come down on our level to love us and show us the way. And so, you know, we don't have to put Jesus aside as some impossible standard that we could never meet. Jesus was like us, and so we can live like him. And that's the path of Christian discipleship right there. We try to be more and more like Jesus. And he was in the real world doing real things. Suffering, really. So if he could live a life like he lived, you know, we could do it too. And that's, that's what we do, you know, we model ourselves after the teacher. We're disciples, we're students of Jesus. So we don't just listen to his lessons, we try to live like he did too. You know, that's the, the basis for Christian discipleship, is to do the things Jesus did. And that includes prayer and, you know, studying the scriptures and speaking the truths of God and living according to it and encouraging people to, you know, put their faith in Jesus. So, because Jesus said, you know, put your faith in me and follow me, you know, that's what he said. So let's do that. And so today, as we move into Tuesday of work, let's be like Jesus and pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the life that you've given us. And we thank you for the things you've taken away, all the bad things, the bad habits, the toxic people, the bad situations we were locked in and trapped in. You set us free. You rescued us and you've given us new life. And if we remain in chains, we know that you're calling for us to walk away. We know you're calling us to walk in freedom. And, um, let's answer— help us answer that call, Lord. So we just pray today for you to bless anyone who's listening or reading this message today, that they would consider taking a step towards you and away from the people who negatively impact them or who are toxic in their life. Help them and guide them to let go of the pain of the past and look into the future and to walk in the newness of life that you have for them. And Lord, while you're at it, you can, you can do that for me too, as we always want to follow you, Lord. I pray for you to go before me today. Open my eyes to the things you want me to see. Help me do things wisely, with skill if possible, and, you know, show me the way to go. And because, Lord, all I want to do is represent you and your kingdom here on the earth. I might not be very good at it. That's my intention, is to follow you and to encourage people to follow you too. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.