Speak Life - Purity 1141

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 dirt and gravel road with greener grass on one side under ethereal blue skies comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene while out for a walk on Sunday, September 3rd. Well, it's Friday, thank God, and I'm just feeling blessed for another day in the life of traveling the path of Christian discipleship. I am here to tell you that just like in today's photo, the grass is greener when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and live in God's kingdom. Last night, the Celebrate Freedom growth group met again, and we were graced with a pair of newcomers and someone who had visited once before but who hadn't— who we hadn't seen in 7 weeks. And who has now officially registered for the group. You know, it's one thing when someone comes to a group or ministry you're leading one time, but you really have to be encouraged when they come back, especially after a long absence. Well, I guess we could be saddened that this person didn't walk away healed from one meeting, from the one meeting they attended, and has continued in the same struggles they had 2 months, nearly 2 months ago, but I am filled with joy over the fact that they came back to us knowing full well what we are about and how, and has decided to get the help and support they need to overcome their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Also last night we were graced by the attendance of 2 men who had accompanied one of our regular attendees. They had come for a couple of weeks with their friend, but They seemed non-committal and hadn't registered for the group, which is not mandatory, by the way. Anyway, when we got word from their friend that they would not be in attendance— be able to attend last night, we assumed that these two men wouldn't show up without them. But we were wrong. They did show up. And not only that, one of these guys even made an excellent point in the men's discussion when he tried to encourage encouraged a couple of the men to forgive themselves because of the work Jesus had done on the cross. Although these two men haven't registered, I think they joined the group last night all the same. Um, joined the group last night all the same. I think they like what we are doing, and I was encouraged to see them show up solo. One of the core principles we stress in the group is community. Developing joy bonds with one another. Each week I stress how happy I am to see each and every one of the, of our group members walk through the door. Part of our meeting includes a check-in where each member is asked to share their progress over the last week and one thing they are thankful for, because I want the group members to know we genuinely care about what's happening in their lives and we are rooting for their success. Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue can bring life or death. Those who love to talk will reap the consequences." So we speak life into every meeting of the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group and challenge our members to change the way they think about themselves to line up with what God says about them rather than who they were before coming to the Lord. We have seen the consequences of what we say, when it is received, play out in our members' lives. One woman has stated that our "class" has been life-changing for her and that our group brings Jesus alive and has caused her, after 35 years of being a Christian, to want to know him more. Lives are being changed because of the life we speak and the Holy Spirit that is using our words to draw the the people in our meeting closer to God and has encouraged them to become the people that God has created them to be. I'm humbled to be part of this wonderful work of God as he encourages people to walk out of the darkness of their past into the new life he has for them. God is good and he is moving in the Celebrate Freedom growth group at Star Point Church. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on alcohol and drug abuse. And, uh, today's verse is 1 Corinthians 5:11, which says, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. Not even to eat with such a one. Today's verses fall under the 13th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on alcohol and drug abuse. That 13th point is: Don't associate with drunkards. Today's verse encourages us to be authentic in our faith life and to distance ourselves from those who talk the talk but fail to walk the walk of a Christian. While we all— we have all sinned and fallen short and desperately need the forgiveness that comes through our faith in Jesus Christ, just because the Lord was gracious to save us in the midst of our trespasses and sins doesn't mean that we were meant to stay in our trespasses and sins. Here the Apostle Paul is talking about people practicing greasy grace or licentiousness, those who claim that the grace they have received from God gives them a license to sin and keep on sinning with gusto because they have been set free. Guys, we are free— we are not free to sin. We are free from sin. That's why Jesus told the woman who was caught in the act of adultery in John 8:11 to go and sin no more. Jesus didn't say, "Hey, no big deal, you are forgiven, do what you want." Instead, Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 16:24 that, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways and take up your cross and follow me." And in John 8— John 14:15, Jesus said, "If you love me, obey my commandments." So as Christians, we are to repent of our former— in this case, drunken ways— and turn from all the sin in our lives. While we may never be perfect as, as Jesus is on this side of heaven, we can make progress in becoming more and more like Jesus and have victory over the sins that kept us in bondage before Jesus saved us. And Paul makes it clear in today's verse to steer clear of anyone who claims to be a Christian and actively lives in a lifestyle of sin. He knows the dangers of keeping bad company and says we should not even associate with someone who is, uh, not even associate with someone who is giving Christianity a bad name. Instead of encouraging their sins with our company, part ways with them and encourage them to repent, because if someone has more faith in the sins that beset them than in the Lord that saved them, they may one day discover that Jesus never knew them and live out the consequences of their unrepented sins with suffering here on earth and with eternal torment in hell. As always, we encourage— we invite all— we do try to encourage you, and we invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, 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 A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, as we are sharing from chapter 23 today, The Spirit Witnessing. And today's, today's session is on doubting and professing Christians. And so if you're a doubting or professing Christians and want to know what A.W. Pink has to say about you, or those doubting and professing Christians, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Also at the end of today's blog post, you'll find encouragements to, um, join our Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes via the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast. Those teachings are all based on the word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson, and they just happen to be life transfer transformative for me along my path, so much so that I became certified with Freedom in Christ Ministries as a Community Freedom Ministry Associate and started a freedom ministry and taught those classes back in 2021 at my local church. I made the decision at the time to podcast them, and not only did it lead to me meeting my wife Uh, it has also led to those, those teachings to be shared on the podcast and YouTube, and, uh, that people are still checking them out today, um, as they are one of the most clicked on, um, things we have on our YouTube channel. So, um, we just pray that people watch or listen to— they are audio teachings after all— listen to the entire teaching, and most importantly, imply those, uh those lessons in their lives because they teach all about who you are in Christ and the spiritual forces of darkness and how to overcome your personal and spiritual conflicts by going through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. So we recommend that. For more on the Steps to Freedom in Christ, you can always go to ficm.org, Freedom in Christ Ministries website, and get books or you can even join a class basically online to help you go through those if you don't want to listen to my podcast. You can listen to somebody else teach it or just read the books yourself. Anyway, we encourage people to follow the path of Christian discipleship because it just happens to lead to life instead of death. Life and freedom versus death and bondage seems like a no-brainer to me. But we know that only the Lord can bring us to repentance. But when he, when he brings us into the kingdom, we should keep going and following him, uh, and follow him into, you know, everything he wants us to do, including our freedom. Um, so that's that. We encourage a daily spiritual practice. Every day as a Christian, what do you do? Well, you ignore the train outside and you, uh, pray and you read the Bible. Um, and we share a Bible study on our podcast as well to encourage Bible study. So if you need a Bible study to sit in on, you can sit in on ours. It's called Bible Study with the Sincatis, as Arthur and Susanna Sincati basically host us as they— Arthur authors the study each week, and we sit around, discuss what Arthur's written about, and see what the word of God says and how we apply the Word of God to our lives. So that's what we do here because the Lord set us free and we want to encourage other people in their freedom. So while I am not free from everything, I am free from the consequences of this world and I have to work to support myself. So I'm gonna have to run out the door even though it's Friday to get things done for my employer. And, uh, we should, we should definitely pray about that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that we've seen you do in our lives and in the lives of others. We know you're alive and well and that you bring people to the place they need to be when they decide to follow you. Well, we thank you so much for this Celebrate Freedom growth group and everything you're doing through through that group, um, and to the people in the group. It's truly a blessing to see you work, Lord, and we thank you for that. And Lord, we pray for the people listening or reading today's message, that you would come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith, and that you would bless them, Lord, because we all need your help on the path of Christian discipleship. We need to know what to do and how to do it. And that's, that's for you to tell us, and we're listening and we want to know. So Lord, we just ask that you go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead our path in the things we should do, Lord, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom and to show others the love of Christ. Well, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.