Seeing, Feeling, and Enduring the Wind The Full Acceptance of the Mystery – Purity 742

To see today's video, go to mt4christ.org or follow me on— follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's short video, also shared on YouTube, of weeds being moved by the wind as I take my canine companion Harley for a walk was recorded yesterday as we walked along Waite Road near my countryside home. The strong wind blowing the weeds and a recent teaching at my local church on the Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus' words in John 3:5-8, where he said, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. For those who don't know, the mysterious statement regarding being born in the Spirit is quite simple. Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are born of God, says 1 John 5:1, and are given eternal life, uh, indicated by John 3:16, and they receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2:38 and Romans 8:9, and are simultaneously sealed by God, which we can read about in Ephesians 1:13-14 and 4:30. Um, so every person who makes Jesus their Lord and Savior receives the Holy Spirit when they're faith— when they, when they place their faith in him and are guaranteed a place in God's family and eternal kingdom for all time. For there is nothing that can separate us from his love when we become born again, when we become born of the Spirit. But that is just the beginning, folks. Just like the wind blows in today's video, after we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we feel and see the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. After we come to faith in Christ and decide to follow him with our lives, we can feel the Holy Spirit in our lives primarily through the joy of our salvation. When we put our faith in Christ, we have joy because we know that we have been forgiven. We have peace with God. We are made his children, and we never need— we need never fear death or God's wrath Again, if we abide in the truth of who we are in Christ, the joy of our salvation can be a continual wellspring of hope and motivation to live the Christian life. Another way we can feel the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives isn't so warm and fuzzy. After becoming born of the Spirit, we can feel convicted when we think and act in ways that are contrary to God's way. Even though we have the assurance of our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins, somehow the sins we were very comfortable with before coming to faith in Christ aren't so much fun as they used to be, and we feel a conviction in our spirits to repent. The Holy Spirit will cause us to feel that our sins aren't okay just because they are forgiven. Uh, if we walk in the Spirit, where we attempt to follow Jesus' example and live according to God's ways, we will feel the desire to stop doing what used— what we used to do and start doing what God's wisdom shows us we, we should do. Um, the Holy Spirit's conviction can sting, but healing and peace is found when we surrender to the righteous and— to the righteous and holy life the Lord calls us to live. The mystery of our faith lies in the acceptance of who we are in Christ and the surrender to God's will by rejecting all the world's various options for living that seem right, you know, quote-unquote, seem right to a man, but lead to death. And, and it lies in making the decision to follow the truth, the way, and the life, uh, Jesus Christ. Our decision to be a disciple of Christ includes believing the good news, but it also includes the progressive seeking of the Lord where we attempt to know him more and his will for our life by understanding the word of God and the implications it has for our lives. The appropriate response to being born of the Spirit is to live like it, to walk in the Spirit. And this walk will confound you at times because, like, like Christ's words say about the wind in general, the mighty rushing wind of the person of the Holy Spirit blows where he wishes. We might not always know where he is coming from or where he is going to send us, but his leadings will never contradict the Word of God and always lead to our growing in our faith and in our love of God— love for God. Now, in man's attempt to simplify the mystery of faith, we often try to reduce it to pat slogans like, just do the right thing all the time, do the right thing and good things will happen to you. While this sentiment is seemingly a good one, it can easily become corrupted as man can become prideful and believe that the blessings they have in life are merely the result of their wise decisions to work hard and be a good, quote-unquote, good person. And it can also lead to a false belief of self-sufficiency that determines that they don't need God or can decide that their sins are okay because after all, no one is perfect, and they work hard after all. These sentiments would lead to sin and cause us to suffer, which could possibly cause us to stop trusting God. Yes, whether it is the product of our own or someone else's sin, or whether it's just an effect of the conditions of a world that has been broken because of sin, there is suffering and death in this world. Do good, get good is not an equation that always works. And in light of the natural course of life on earth, where people get sick, age, and die, uh, if we don't have an understanding of these things according to God's wisdom, we may think that we have been given a raw deal. When the winds of change and tragedy blow in our lives, our foundation of faith and our relationship with God will be tested. We don't have an understanding of who we are in Christ and who God is that can equally explain blessings and the quote-unquote curses of a fallen world broken by sin. We will be blown all over the place in our emotions and in our responses if we don't investigate our faith enough to attempt to understand and accept paradoxes such as we live yet we We die, yet we will live. We are saints, but yet we can and will sin. We are free from sin, and yet we can still choose to sin. We may prosper, but suffering may and probably will come. The Lord loves us, but the world will hate us. People without faith in Jesus may prosper, while those with faith in Christ may suffer. We can do "everything right" and still not get what we want. Or suffer loss. All those paradoxes, uh, you know, are reality. Um, so walking in the Spirit may lead to feelings of great joy and victory as we experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, but it can also seem to at times to be like we are walking against the winds of a hostile world of suffering and death, against the winds of adversity. And against those constantly blowing winds of change. But the LORD is over and above those winds. He calms the storms. And regardless of the sufferings and loss that we will encounter in our walk through life on this earth, if we walk with Him, we will endure and be able to know His peace no matter what storms come our way. So accept the Word of God and obey what it says. To know God more and to grow into the person he calls you to be. While much of our faith can seem mysterious, when we seek the Lord and accept the truth of who he is, who we are in Christ, and what he says about the way things work, we will discover that we can always trust that the Lord will get it right and that he will always do what's right. So keep walking and talking with God. He will show you the way the wind blows and how we can endure it and be carried along by it to the place he wants us to go. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 1 Timothy 2:5, and it says, for there is only one God, one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus. Today's Bible verse plainly declares the truth that there is one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. Enough said? I hope so. The exclusivity of Christ to save is a challenge for the world to accept because of the spiritual blindness that we suffer from before we are graced with a revelation of the truth of the gospel by the Holy Spirit. In truth, The Lord saves us. We can't save ourselves. In our own wisdom, we would never choose to follow the Lord. Our salvation is a gift from God. We can't convince or argue anyone into God's kingdom. But imagine if we could. Would we choose it? While our faith is logical when we understand that it is the truth, when you are on the outside looking in, it is foolishness to those who are perishing. The idea of a free gift by itself is a hard pill for some people to swallow, as their experience has taught them that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The idea of a substitutionary atonement through blood sacrifice would probably send us screaming and running for the exits. We have to explain how this works to Christians, so it is no surprise that those outside of the faith choose to reject it. But let's see, the course of human history contains a man known as Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who influenced the course of global history, that not, not only established the way we number our days with the Year of Our Lord, but who also influenced people to change the way they live their lives, their individual lives, and cause some to champion righteous causes that established institutions that establish law and order and compassionate services to societies. Um, there is great evidence in the word of God, archaeology, and the testimonies of individual lives and world history to validate the, the truth of Jesus Christ as the one mediator who can reconcile mankind to God. And I pray that the Lord uses some of that evidence today to open the eyes of the spiritual blind and welcome more into his kingdom. Um, so let, let people know that they need to be reconciled to God and tell them of the way that God makes it possible— Jesus Christ. While it can seem complicated explaining the gospel to someone, rest assured that when you speak of it You are telling the truth, and if God wills it, it will be heard and accepted. Our mission on earth is to tell others of the love, mercy, and grace that God has given us through the revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So be bold, tell the truth in love, and leave the results up to God. 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 John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life. Today we're sharing the fifth and last point of John Piper's advice on bringing our faith to our secular work. And today the fifth point says, we make much of Christ in our secular work by earning money with the desire to use our money to make others glad and God. Yeah, we're stewards of money and we're supposed to use it to glorify his kingdom. We're also sharing the sixth point apparently, which says, uh, we make much of Christ in our secular work by treating the web of relationships it creates as a gift of God to be loved by sharing the gospel and by practical deeds of help. So yeah, we can share the gospel at work and help people. And he also gives a conclusion. And this section of Piper's book, Don't Waste Your Life, is actually the conclusion of chapter 8, and we'll begin chapter 9 tomorrow. As always, I share these works and these portions of work to encourage people in their faith for educational purposes, and you can always buy the resources I share in their entirety and support the work of those who write it. Um, but, uh, yeah, there's much to learn about our faith and much to apply with our faith. And when we learn the lessons and apply them to our lives, we can have peace regardless of the winds of change or the bad things that happen. Just last night I was speaking to, um, well, we recently had a death in the family and we were talking about it, and, um, and I tried to assure, um the people I was talking to that God will get it right and that death, until Christ comes back, death is a natural thing that we have to deal with. And that we have to look at the higher reality that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and that, you know, being with the Lord is actually better than being here on earth. And, uh, you know, we have to trust the Lord that he gets it right and that those who have a relationship with him will, will be in a, in a very good place on the other side of this life. And that's the importance of the gospel. We need to share, um, we need to share the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord and the faith in him guarantees us a good place in eternity. And, uh, it also, you know, it also shows the importance of our individual choice, um, to, to have that assurance of our salvation. But also to, you know, are we gonna really, you know, do we say we believe and we're just gonna live like we've always lived, or we really gonna trust the word of God and apply all of it, uh, to, to our lives, um, or at least attempt to um, you know, to experience that fruit of the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit, we'll experience the fruit of the Spirit. Um, and how do you believe that? Um, I didn't always believe it, you know. My will seemed more important than God's will. But after coming to faith in Christ, I learned that the more I obeyed the Lord, the more I prospered. Now, I went through great suffering too, so it wasn't a one-for-one relationship on the blessings of the Lord by any stretch. Because I had a lot of learning to do and a lot of surrendering to do and a lot of sin in my life. Um, when I started to walk away those things, things you, you benefit automatically. The Lord also blesses you to know him more, and he gives you revelations of, of the truth of his word to show you that his, his is the way, the truth, and the life. And when we come alongside, um, the word of God and apply it to our lives we benefit greatly. So that's why we, that's why we testify 6 days a week about the goodness of the Lord and encourage people to follow him, because we, we chose to and we benefited greatly coming out of the darkness of our former life and into the new life that Christ has for us. So we encourage that by sharing our teachings on our, on our podcast and our YouTube channel for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. And we share a weekly Bible study with our friends Arthur and Susanna Sincotti, uh, to show, you know, what it looks like when you're a Christian and you talk about the things of God. So, um, we benefited greatly from our Lord, and we only wish to share what we know so others can benefit and others can come to faith in Christ and be saved. And find peace here on the earth. Um, so that's all we have to say today. Today is Friday. Uh, thank God it's Friday, uh, for most of us who don't have to work tomorrow. But I sort of had a Friday on Wednesday because I had yesterday off. And, uh, you know, that's neither here nor there. But, uh, you know, for most of us, um, we're going into a 3-day weekend. And, you know, talk about time to rejoice. And it's, it's a Memorial Day weekend, so we have to think about how other people died for our freedom and served our country. And when we think of that, we should be grateful, but we should remember the one, you know, we should remember the one who didn't just die for our freedom in the United States, but who died for our freedom for all eternity, uh, Jesus Christ. And, um, so you know, share that too. But we should be grateful for this, the, the loss of life that is commemorated this, this coming Memorial Day. And we might say more about that tomorrow, but for now we're going to say thank God it's Friday, and let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for the Holy Spirit who showed us the truth and who, who leads us and guides us as we go as Christians in our consciences and in showing, uh, showing us the truth, but through illuminating the word of God and, and showing us what it means and how it applies to our lives, and bringing things in a remembrance in our, in our mind of what we've read, um, in the word of God and, and things we've been taught. So we thank you for this interactive experience that we have with you, Lord, through our prayer lives and through our reading of the word. And how it touches our hearts and our minds and how it guides us in our lives. And, and, uh, Lord, we just pray that you would guide us today into what you want us to see and what you want us to do, um, through your Holy Spirit in us. Um, guide us and teach us what you want us to know. Um, Lord, we pray for everyone listening today. We thank you, Lord, for their presence listening to the podcast. Lord, we pray for you to bless them with healing and revelations and blessings for— to help them in their Christian walk, Lord, because we know you're with them, we know you love them, and we know you care and can do things in their lives. So we pray for, for them today, and we thank you for their presence. And, uh, Lord, we thank you for your presence as we go forth today. Um, we, we just pray for you to go before us, set things up, um, so we can give you glory as we go. Every step of the way. Uh, Lord, we love you, we thank you, we praise your holy name, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.