Repentance and the Lord Blessing Your Efforts - Purity 1262

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 buffalo in front of a large mound of rock reaching for a blue sky comes to us from Chris Oswald as he shared the scene on social media this past weekend from his trip to Devil's Tower. Well, it's Wednesday and I figured Chris's photo of Devil's Tower power was more than adequate, uh, well, was more than adequate enough to physically, uh, visually represent, uh, our arrival at another hump day. Today is the last day of January 2024. My spirit is alive with the possibilities for the new year. I don't know if it's the coming upcoming arrival of Lunar New Year on February 9th, or just the realization that we made it through the first month of the year and winter didn't kill us. But perhaps due to— but perhaps due to my recent experiences in Emmanuel Prayer Ministry, or the fact that I was convicted to be true to my Stronghold Buster and now am 4 days free of zero sugar sodas— zero sugar sodas— and despite the issues in other people's lives around me, I feel great. And, uh, that was a mess because I did dictation and, uh, I gotta go in there and edit all that out. Wow. And anyway, and I have to testify that people who seem to be walking in the direction I'm going all have the same thing in common: hope. And beyond, beyond hope, there seems to be progress in increasing their senses of well-being, freedom, and peace. Tonight I'll attend the Celebrate Freedom growth group at Star Point Church where I'll be reminded of what a difference faith in Jesus can make. Admittedly, there have been some ups and downs in the various participants' lives since we began the group back in May of last year. Honestly, there have been some real, and I mean capital, capital R-E-A-L, real disasters as some of the people have come in and received a measure of freedom and victory for a time but were deceived, lured away, or just plain quit. As I say, walking and talking with God. But while we have the freedom to make our own choices and craft our own recoveries, Christian discipleship and Christian recovery really isn't supposed— isn't something you're supposed to take a break from. Our relationship with God is continuous, and our decision to follow him into repentance is supposed to be continuous as well. So participants who come to every other meeting, drop by once a month, or who take several weeks off, uh, should not be surprised if they don't have the freedom and victory they want. To receive freedom and victory, you not only have to believe, but you also have to do your part with your walk into a new and abundant life. But don't get me wrong, our faith in God, relationship with Him, and asking for His help and guidance and strength is a huge part of our— of the freedom equation. Long-lasting freedom and victory isn't possible without a heart to surrender to and rely on the Lord. Christ didn't say, "Abide in me on the weekends." So yes, you have to connect with God through prayer and Bible study and talking with Him, but it If you enter into walking in the Spirit, God isn't just going to— well, even though God isn't going to supernaturally bless you with everything you ask for, He is, you know, and He's not your genie in the bottle to grant your wishes. If you are walking and talking with Him, He is going to speak to you by raising your awareness, illuminating truth, and showing the things that you need to do by convicting your heart and mind. When Pastor Bob Costello started Christian Ministry, Recovery Ministry, at my old church, I was attending Bible college and serving actively in the church. But although I had the heart to know God more and serve Him, I was still living in the shadows with drunkenness and lust. So when Pastor Bob announced the new Recovery Ministry, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, not in an audible voice, but it was just as compelling, saying, this is for you. And considering how answering that call to recovery and repentance has led me, led to my sobriety and subsequent service in Recovery and Freedom Ministries ever since 2015, I would have to say the Holy Spirit meant that this is for you in more than one way, in more ways than one. Anyway, I shared last week and all— I shared last weekend all the time about how in those early days of my recovery free from alcohol, how like Paul with his thorn in the flesh, I pleaded to the Lord in prayer to the point of tears, begging him to take my addiction away and to instantly heal me of the cravings of the flesh and the temptations in my mind, and how I wasn't instantly cured, how I had to lean on the Lord for strength and to make the daily decision to not go back to my drinking. And to follow the Lord into the land of sobriety one day at a time. The Lord blessed my efforts, but I had to make that decision every day. And as the days between me and the last— and my last relapse lengthened, I began to realize that God had already given me the power to overcome. Heck, he gave— he actually gave me a new life of purity, but I had to believe it and live in accordance with it to realize it. Your chains are gone when you put your faith in Jesus, but the world, the flesh, your past experience, your acquaintances, family, friends, and the devil may cause you to believe the lie that you are, are the same lost and sorry person you always were. Once an addict, always an addict. You will always struggle with this. It runs in our family. I was born this way, and it works for some people but not for me. Are all lies that don't apply to the born-again follower of Jesus Christ. But you have to know those statements aren't true, and you have to live according to who you are in Christ to make your new life of freedom and victory a reality. So we pray, we read the Bible, we ask God for strength, wisdom, and healing. Are you not doing these things? But we also decide to believe what the Word of God tells us about ourselves and life and we make the commitment to follow the Lord with the way we live. We actually think about the things we think about, examine the things we say and do, pay attention to things we put our time in, and we listen to the Holy Spirit when he tells us, "This is for you," or, "This is not for you anymore." When we seek the Lord, we will find him, and when we follow the Lord, he will lead us to a life in the Spirit where there is righteousness, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, love, patience, self-control, peace, and joy. Yesterday I had workmen coming to my house to do repairs, and I was convicted by the mess my adult children had made of my simple home. Instead of getting mad at the fact that the place was sloppy looking, I was convicted over how the mess wasn't right. And instead of praying for the Lord to take it away, or rousing my kids out of bed in the early morning hours to give them what for and to command them to pick up the place, I got busy making all things new. I threw out trash, put things in the recycling, swept the floor, washed and put away dishes, cleaned the kitchen sink and the countertops, and finished by cleaning the bathroom. It was a whirlwind of activity in the early morning hours yesterday, but now my house is clean. I had to do the work to get it there, and if I enjoy having the place clean, I will have to be proactive in cleaning up on a continuous basis. If you like the joy of a neat space, you have to keep it neat, right? I had let things go when I never should have. I compromised my principles because I decided that it was not my mess. But it is my house, and the LORD says we are to be good stewards of the things He gives us. So I am rejoicing over the new beginning of another month tomorrow, knowing that when we focus on the problems of that face us, we can overcome them. And with the Lord's help, we can do it with peace. So it is the last day of January. Let us, let us make a new month resolution to not let things go, to not just pray and hope the Lord takes things away. Let us ask for His help and do something to make a change, to to bring closer— to bring us closer to where we want to be. The Lord will bless your efforts, so let's make them in spirit, in hope, and in truth. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John J. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on communication, gossip, and lying. Today's verse is Proverbs 18:13. And it says from the New King James, um, he who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him. Today's verse is the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the sixth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. That sixth point is listen before you speak. Today's verse is encouraging us to not assume we know what people are going to say before they say it. Let's not think— let's, let's, let's not think about what we're going to say next without first listening to what is being said. Answering a matter before you hear it is folly and a shame because it dishonors the other people involved because they are not being heard, and it leaves us vulnerable to looking like a fool by answering questions that are not being asked. So be wise and listen before you speak. And then answer the matter brought before you with patience, wisdom, and love. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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 According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. And in these journals, um, Alford prompts people to read, or he read a chapter of the New Testament every day, and then he makes commentary on it. Today's chapter is Matthew 22, and from that chapter, Alford highlights verse 1, which says, Jesus answered and spoke to them by parables. And Stephen Alford writes, someone has said a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. In any case, the Lord Jesus in his preaching and teaching made great use of parables. Their purpose was to illuminate the truth to those who were ready to receive it and to conceal the truth to those who were unbelieving. The Lord Jesus used everyday life and common scenes to build his stories. He adapted himself into his audiences and circumstances. His three great study books were God's Book, the Book of Creation, and the Book of Human Life. And Alford concludes by saying, teach me, Lord, how to use these three books skillfully in my ministry for you. Amen. God's Book, the Bible. Book of Creation, I guess, as you look around outside. And the Book of Human Life, you look about, look about the world and see what's going on. And you bring them together. So, so yeah, basically our faith is supposed to be in all three aspects: nature and our relations with man and obviously with the Lord. And that's what Alfred's praying for there. So, um, well, and I'm short on time. I'm gonna have to edit my, um, my Word doc because it is a mess, and I apologize for the disjointed message today and every day. And, um, you know, I, I'm, I'm, I sometimes fly in, uh, fly in opposition to the, uh, if you're not going to do things well, you shouldn't do them at all. Well, in sharing a message of encouragement for Christians, I think it's more important to share the message even if it's not perfect than sharing a perfectly gleaned message. So, um, and of course there's balance there. We want to do good work, but let's do, do something to point to Jesus. And so, um, the Lord forgive me for my lack of precision, but there it is. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for helping us even though we're not perfect and we make mistakes. We rely on things that aren't trustworthy and true like you are. And so, Lord, help us to change our ways to do that. And, uh, Lord, we pray for anyone who's out there listening or reading today's message, uh, that you'd bless them, that you would come alongside them in their prayer requests, their walk of faith, to guide them as they should go. Lord, while you're at it, we need your help too. And so we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Lead us and the things you would have us do, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom here on earth and to enjoy our lives in your presence every day. So Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.