So Many Good Things - Nothing Stands Between Us - Purity 1431

Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm 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 freshly blacktopped country road under a completely cloudless blue sky comes to us from yours truly as I captured this clear path, clear skies scene on Waite Road in Easton back on July 14th. Well, it's Tuesday, and I rise this morning filled with joy over so many good things in my life. I am rejoicing over my relationship with God. The joy of our salvation should regularly, regularly be indulged in. Um, because of Jesus, I am forgiven, I am free, and I'm gonna live forever. Gonna live forever. Yeah. Uh, beyond that, I'm rejoicing over the fact that I am on vacation, uh, that I have a job that provides for my needs, that I am content with, uh, that gives me more than a couple of weeks off per year, and I have the day before me to do what I will. Um, I am also rejoicing that I just completed some more ministry training to assist my efforts at spiritual warfare and helping to set the captives free. I am now officially a certificate-bearing Bob Larson University International School of Exorcism graduate and will begin working on BLU's Advanced Academy of Deliverance coursework next. Um, but perhaps most of all, I'm rejoicing this morning because I met with a life coaching client last evening and began encouraging them to discover their identity and freedom in Christ. I don't usually recognize the beginning of freedom season until I begin facilitating the online Freedom in Christ courses I lead for Freedom in Christ Ministries in the spring and in the fall. But since I have begun taking on clients with my Christian life coaching practice, I now realize that just like the NFL, there is no offseason when it comes to helping others. To draw close to God and to resolve their personal and spiritual conflicts. My newest client doesn't have a deep relationship with the Lord but understands its importance, uh, in principle at least. And I was excited to begin leading him through the Freedom in Christ, uh, course sessions on why we believe the Bible and who we are in Christ— who I am— last night. If you're curious about those sessions, you can check out my audio podcast version of them on YouTube, and I'm including a playlist link, uh, in the blog today for those who want to check it out. As someone who has more or less, uh, as someone who was more or less a cultural Christian, my client has sin in his life and not surprisingly doubts about his salvation and his faith. So last night we talked about his relationship with God. While he doesn't, uh, he doesn't know, he hasn't known, uh, the close fellowship, uh, with the Lord through a rich church life or through a practice of regular spiritual discipline. His testimony of being emotionally affected by hearing certain Christian messages at different times of his life and ultimately being moved to repentance to find his freedom in Christ indicates that he has at least a mustard seed of faith and the Holy Spirit living inside of him. Um, because my client doesn't have a rich relationship with the Lord through devotional practices, and because he lives his life like the rest of the world, he doubted whether or not he was a Christian at all at times, and, uh, still worried about his salvation. So last night I sought to give him some assurances, uh, regarding the Bible, meaning God's inspired word, that could be trusted and relied on for truth and guidance. And how its wisdom reveals that we are not Christians based on our performance or sinless existence, but are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. I pointed to the times when he prayed, was moved by the truth and beauty of God's word, and when he made a decision to be baptized as a Christian 4 years ago as the evidence for his Christian faith. Those moments in his life of faith provide outward signs for his Christianity, and the movements of his heart, uh, demonstrate the Holy Spirit living inside of him. These things prove to me that my client is indeed a Christian, and he only needs to be encouraged to choose to live as a disciple of Jesus to experience the assurance, peace, and freedom that he's looking for. I was so excited talking to him last night and had difficulty containing my enthusiasm because there were so many good things that I could tell him about life in Christ. But I latched on to those moments where he experienced what I believe to be the Holy Spirit moving his heart inside of him as the thing to look at to as proof of God being with him. The In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotional from a couple of days ago spoke about how the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer, and I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to see that God is active and operating in our lives through the Holy Spirit in us. And, uh, in his devotional, Dr. Charles Stanley wrote, our helper in prayer. One of the most painful human emotions is loneliness. Of course, there are times when being alone is unavoidable, but since God has sent his Spirit to live within us, we are never truly on our own. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus referred to as our helper, is with us every single day— every, I'm sorry, every second of every day. Let's think about ways that the Spirit of God helps us in our prayer life. First, he prods us to pray. Have you ever felt a strong sense that you needed to spend time with the Lord, perhaps without even knowing why? That is the Spirit convincing you, or convicting you. He has many reasons for doing this. He knows when we need strength because of an imminent difficulty, or he sometimes encourages us to confess sins so our fellowship with the Father isn't hindered And second, uh, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. There are times when we do not know how to pray. For example, when sorrow or helplessness overwhelms us to the point that words are impossible to speak, even to the Lord. Thankfully, when all we can do is cry to Jesus, the Spirit will lead, lead on our behalf. What a privilege to have God's Spirit dwelling in your heart. Do you recognize his power and love throughout your day? He longs to comfort, enable, and guide you each and every moment. And that was from Dr. Charles Stanley. And I say amen. God is with us and in us through the person of the Holy Spirit. And when we commune with him in prayer, read God's word, or just walk and talk with God, we can experience the fact that we are no longer alone. Our helper. The Holy Spirit is in us and seeks to help us to grow deeper in our relationship with God and to become the people God made us to be. He is here to help us, and when we feed our spirit with the word and spiritual disciplines, he reveals the life of truth, hope, peace, joy, and love that God wants us to live. Um, the song Another in the Fire by Hillsong United has a line in the bridge that says, nothing stands between us. And it's so true because the Lord is with us always. The Holy Spirit lives in us, and nothing can separate us from his love. We are in— when we are in Christ, nothing stands between us. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis, and this morning's meditation verses come to us from the section on the forgiveness of sins. And today's section of scripture is Matthew 11:28-30, where Jesus says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Today's verses fall under the 10th point of, uh, of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the forgiveness of sins. And that 10th point is: Jesus extends a loving invitation. Today's verses remind us of the rest the Lord offers us through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus's work on the cross, our sins are forgiven and our souls can rest easy knowing that not only are we safe from God's wrath, but we are welcomed into his family as his children. We can be at ease because through Jesus we have peace with God, and through our faith in Christ, we can receive all of God's love. We may have to grow into our new life in Christ, but compared to the burden of the weight of our sins and the fear of judgment and death, The new life of living for God is a light burden whose pathway is paved with joy, love, and peace. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights and, uh, insights and, uh, work from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Uh, today we get— today we continue sharing from According to Your Word Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford. And in Stephen Allford's, uh, devotional, he shares— well, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture, and, uh, today's chapter, 2 Thessalonians 3. From that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 5, which says, the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. And Stephen Alford writes, all sin may be summed up in the one word misdirection. When the devil came to Eve in the garden, he misdirected the power of her will. Ever since, man has been misdirected. At conversion, a man is directed by the power and influence of the Holy Spirit into God's way, along God's will. After conversion, the Christian begins little by little to submit his personality to the directing power of God, so that instead of running contrary to the will of God, he is now released in the right direction for the glory of God. So the Apostle writes here, the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. And Alfred ends by praying, I worship thee, sweet will of God, and all thy ways adore. And every, every day I live, I long to love thee more and more. Amen. Amen. And the Love Offered devotional today, it tells us to be directed towards God's love, and God's love would have us do what, what is right and according to his word, and to lead us to become more and more like, like Jesus in our personalities. And the fact that we would repent of our sins and seek to do good works in his name. This is the life-empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Um, he compels us to do something for the kingdom. He compels us to surrender to his will, to the Lord's will for our lives. And that's where we ask the question: have you fully surrendered to God? Um, that's what the whole term Empty for Christ is. We empty ourselves to be filled with God's Holy Spirit and his plan for our lives. Not only do we think about what God says about us or who God is in our minds, we seek to do something with what God tells us, you know, um, about him and about us. And what we do with it is the most important thing about us. And when we surrender to the Lord, um, he moves us to sanctification and he moves us to good works. And one of the good works that he's moved me to is the Celebrate Freedom support group that meets at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park, New York on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 PM, uh, in the K through 3rd grade classroom. Um, we meet for a discipleship group that focuses on Christian recovery and walking in the spirit. So if you're in the Capital District of New York and you've had cultural Christianity but haven't had a real, you know, robust relationship with the Lord, um, come to Celebrate Freedom and we'll encourage you to develop a daily spiritual practice and a real, a real relationship with the Lord that's based on, uh, you know, what he says about you. Based on who you are in Christ and how you've been forgiven and set free, and how the Lord's Holy Spirit lives inside you and empowers you to live a righteous life that's free from all your old hurts, habits, and hangups. So if you're local, we encourage you to come and join us, and you can even register for the, uh, for the group by going to South Point Church's website and looking up support groups and Celebrate Freedom. Um, we've also talked about the Freedom in Christ course. As I said, you know, freedom, freedom season is, is 24/7, um, as we encourage people to find out who they are in Christ and live according to who they are in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. And one of the great ways you can do that is to learn about that and to resolve your personal and spiritual conflicts is through the Freedom in Christ course. You could look it up on your own, um, and do it on your own. But Freedom in Christ Ministries offers online classes, uh, to lead you through this material and other materials, um, that teach you about your freedom in Christ. And, um, you can find those courses by going to ficm.org. If you're a man and want to sign up for a Tuesday night class, um, you'll see me as the instructor. As, uh, our classes begin on September 3rd at 6:30, but registration does end next Monday, so less than a week, um, left for registration now, and my class is pretty much— we're almost at capacity, we're almost full. So if anyone else wants in, they better do it quick because we do put a cap on it. They want to share Freedom with as many people as possible, but it'd be a little crowded. And when it comes to doing Freedom appointments, scheduling can be pretty, pretty amazingly insane at times. But it's certainly worth it. So we encourage people to sign up for our Freedom in Christ, uh, courses or other courses at ficn.org today. Uh, beyond that, we ask the question: are you empty for Christ too? If so, great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, pray to the Lord, ask him to reveal himself to you, ask him to help you to go the way you should go, as we say so in prayer. Let's do that right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for how you set us free and how you've forgiven us all our sins and how you welcomed us into your kingdom through our faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message or watching it on YouTube today, that they'd be blessed, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, that you'd help them in the way they should go. Lord, while you're at it, uh, we'd like you to help us to 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 desperately need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.