Suddenly Called to Seek Wisdom - Purity 1244

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 farmland and a red barn with forest and mountains in the background comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this pastoral scene on social media along with the following poem: Life on the farm sure is good, milking cows and stacking wood. Early to bed, up before sunrise, crawfish dinner, fried apple pies, a moonshine jug with spoons in hand, add Uncle Ernie and you've got a band. Swimming in the creek and baling hay, just wouldn't have it any other way. While my moonshine days are over, I can appreciate Fred's appreciation for the simple and peaceful life in farm country. While I have no desire to work on a farm, I am currently at my countryside home in Easton and love the surrounding fields and watching the cycles of sowing and harvesting play out throughout the year. Life on the farm has seasons, and although it's unknown what the yield will be when they sow their seeds, farmers are confident in God's provision to produce new growth. Well, it's Wednesday, and I figured the mountains in the background of Fred's pastoral scene were more than adequate to visually represent our arrival at Hump Day. And as it turns out, the farmland motif is also oddly appropriate this morning, as the Lord has supernaturally sown a seed in my spirit that caused me to do something I didn't anticipate doing. And if I allow it to develop, it will undoubtedly cause me to grow. When you walk in the Spirit, you really don't know what's next in terms of where the Lord is going to send you. Sometimes you get a stirring in your spirit that naggingly directs your thoughts in a certain direction, and after a while you encounter things that cause you to understand what those thoughts were about, and you pursue the path that, that the Lord was guiding you to. At other times, things happen suddenly where you get a thought and a quick, a sharp, quick conviction to go there, and you are compelled to follow the call immediately. Do this, do that, pray for that guy, run. And this morning I had that happen. I received an email from Ligonier Ministries about a conference that's happening in a couple of weeks in Florida, which I can't go to, and quickly dismissed. But within the same email, there was a link to Reformation Bible College, which caught my interest. I clicked on it to discover that their programs offer undergraduate degrees in biblical studies. And again, I dismissed it as not being applicable to my situation. I have a bachelor's in Bible, Bible studies already, thank you very much. I have a master's in Christian counseling. The next step for me would be to get my doctorate. And suddenly, call it clickbait or the leading of the Holy Spirit, I found myself Googling doctoral programs in Christian counseling. And applied to Liberty University to get a doctorate in pastoral counseling. Currently my plate is full to the brim for the next few months with ministry and training and discipleship counseling, but I looked at the information about Liberty University's program and I was convinced that this was it. This was my next— what's next. And while I will try to be wise in when I decide to officially begin this next phase of my journey of faith, I feel that this is what the Lord has for me to do. Where it will lead, I have no idea, but I'm going. And honestly, while I had some mild resistance to quote-unquote having to get another degree, it's the natural next step for the path I've been following, and I knew that, you know, getting your doctorate follows getting your master's. But I didn't want to push my own agenda or to satisfy my tendency to seek validation with credentials. But this morning I get a stirring in my spirit that is telling me that this is the time, this is what's next, and it will define a big part of my future. So, mamma mia, here we go again. Holy Spirit, how can I resist you? I can't. Ironically, my words are coming back to haunt me as I just encouraged someone to pursue theological education on Monday evening. One of the men in my— in the Freedom in Christ course that I lead online asked me whether or not he should go to Bible college. And while I understand that we don't need a degree to serve God's kingdom, I had to encourage this young man to really consider going to Bible college and getting a degree, because it would not only give him the educational credentials that some ministry jobs would— could require, and legitimize the seriousness of his decision to follow and seek the Lord, but it would also challenge him to learn things and to be equipped in areas that he would never pursue independently. We don't know what we know— well, we don't know what we don't know, right? On our own, we, we don't even know where to look. And as Christians, we have been blessed with the body of Christ and the men and women who've gone before us, the saints who can show us the way and teach us the things that impacted their walk of faith. That's why I blog, because I was lost and got found. I was ignorant and I learned. I was a slave and I got free. I didn't know a life of Christian discipleship was valuable or even possible, and I discovered it is. So I tell people to seek the Lord, to seek his wisdom and ways, and to and a lot of that can be shown to you as you pursue and obtain a Christian education. So I guess I will be taking my own advice and challenging myself with pursuing the highest level of an educational degree I can get— a doctorate. Mamma mia, here we go again. Um, so let me encourage you, it is never too late to learn something new, and if it involves seeking to know and serve the Lord More, it's a pursuit that is righteous and holy. So go for it. And in the meantime, keep on walking and talking with God, because I know the more you do that, the more you will hear his voice, and eventually you'll receive his guidance to show you what's next. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John J. Cruis. Uh, this morning's meditation verses come from section on comfort. And today's verses are Romans 11:33-36, from the New Living Translation. The Word of God says, oh, how great are God's riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory. All glory to Him forever! Amen. Today's verses fall under the 14th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on comfort. And that 14th point says, God directs all things by His infinite wisdom, and His ways are beyond tracing out. Today's verses tell us how great God's riches, wisdom, and knowledge are, and marvels over how He has created all things and they are intended for His glory. So, we should pursue the riches of His wisdom and knowledge. Even though the passage indicates that we cannot know the Lord's thoughts and ways perfectly, But God has revealed himself through his word and his son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So we can study the Bible and learn from Jesus's teaching and example to impart some of the Lord's wisdom to us and let it, let it, let it use us to give God glory. Um, two of the disciplines of a disciple of Jesus Christ is regular Bible study and meditation. And they are valuable for helping us to become the people God created us to be because they allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and fill our hearts with God's wisdom and ways. So even though, you know, it may be impossible to understand them perfectly, let's seek God's riches every day. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians. To assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from, uh, from Stephen F. Alford's According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament. And today, um, as I look at it, and today we share from, uh, Matthew, Matthew 3. Um, this resource basically encourages you to read Matthew 3. So if you haven't done any Bible study, you can start, you know, you can begin Matthew 3. But it does share from Matthew 13, uh, from Matthew 3:15, and the verse, and it says, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Matthew 3:15. And Alford writes, The word righteousness here means rightness or justice. The standard of the Lord Jesus Christ, right through His life, was to fulfill right. At 12 years of age, He is heard to say, "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" . When He uttered the words here in Matthew, the Lord Jesus was just about to step out on His 3.5 years of public ministry, and his standard was still the fulfilling of righteousness and the will of God. Um, and Alfred continues to write, a little later on he says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work, from John 4:34. Then towards the end, I have finished the work which you have given me to do, in John 17:4. Then finally, "It is finished" . He fulfilled all righteousness. But notice also, He says, "It is fitting for us." Surely this is what the apostle directs when he writes, "Walk worthy, becomingly, of the calling with which you were called" . And offer praise, "Lord, help me to walk worthily that I might fulfill all righteousness. That is the sharing from Stephen F. Wolters, According to Your Word, for today. And, uh, yeah, we are to pursue righteousness and knowledge and seek His wisdom. And so, you know, Jesus, Jesus did it while He was on earth. And, uh, you know, we might not be able to fulfill God's righteousness perfectly, but Ironically, we sort of have it because God's righteousness is Jesus, and if we have Jesus, we are made righteous through our faith in him as his righteousness is imputed to us. So Jesus obtained it and he imputes it to us, but in the terra firma, on the earth, you know, um, you know, we have to align our ways to, to be righteous as well. So We, we have our righteousness. We are working in righteousness and walking in righteousness, and we will be made righteous. You know, that's that present, future, and, uh, you know, past thing there. Okay, God makes us righteous through our faith in Jesus. We are working on becoming righteous in the way we live our lives here on earth, and we'll be eternally righteous, uh, in God's kingdom. So let's work to fulfill the righteousness that we don't have while we enjoy the righteousness we do have and look forward to the righteousness we will experience in God's eternal kingdom. Anyway, that's my commentary on Olford's Commentary. And today I am up at Easton spontaneously. I decided to come up to my wife's place because I have the day off today. I have to work Saturday, so I have a Wednesday off. My one-day weekend, and I decided to spend last night with my wife here at our Countryside Estate in Easton. And I'll be here all day doing studies for my discipleship counseling class, and, and then I'll be going to Celebrate Freedom Life small group, the growth group, tonight where I handed over the leadership to Scott Salvador and Debbie DeYoe, and we'll see what they come up with. I'm pretty sure they'll, you know, follow the format, but they're gonna— they're doing a little introduction on the importance of doing the work of recovery, which, you know, the Lord has put on their heart to share, and that's part of their plan. I can't see how— I can't wait to see how it all plays out, as I'll just be basically in an advisory role for this go-round, unless they decide they want to do it anymore, and I'll have to take over the reins of leadership. But they're both faithful men and women of God, and they're more than capable of leading, and I can't wait to see what they do when they, you know, have to lead. It's a great opportunity for them, and I can't wait to see it. So if you're in Clifton Park or Upstate New York, we invite you to come to our Celebrate Freedom growth group at Starpoint Church. We meet from 6:30 to 8:30, and all are welcome. Although you can go to Starpoint Church and look at support groups, uh, Celebrate Freedom, to register and become part of the group officially. Also, I mean, and if you wanted some, uh, if you can't make it, if you're remote, we invite you to check out our YouTube channel M.t. Clark for Christ 247, where you can find all kinds of discipleship teachings. You can find our daily encouragements. We, we have a Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ course, Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, and the Bible studies with the Sankatis. And we have even the Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. So we put all these teachings out there because we understood, you know, we understand the value of learning about our faith and applying it. And that's what we, we blog. We want to encourage people to pursue the Lord and to become the people that He created them to be. So that's it for me. And so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. We Thank you for all you showed us and how you encourage us to learn more. Um, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today. But before that, we pray for the people who may be listening or reading today's message, that you come and bless them and their prayer request and their walk of faith, because we all need your help, Lord. And like I said, I pray for you to go before me. Open your eye— open my eyes to the things you want me to see. Open my mind and heart to receive what you have for me and faith studies, and lead me in the way I should go today to find rest but to accomplish what I need to accomplish, all at the same time, and to, you know, enjoy your presence here in Easton. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.