That All You Got? - Freedom from Unforgiveness - The Lord Has More for You - Purity 879

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 the clear, still waters of Queechy Lake comes to us from a friend who shared this photo on social media from what they think may be their last paddle of the season on October— on Saturday, October 29th. However, in the comments of the photo's post, a friend playfully challenged our paddling enthusiast, asking the question, "That all you got?" Well, is it? Knowing the weather in upstate New York, the challenger may have a point. While we are in November now and can reasonably expect anything from snow to near 70-degree temperatures like today, we don't always know what the future will hold and what we what we will be capable of unless we challenge ourselves to stretch and see just what it is we can do. Rather than looking at the limitations on our lives, we should ask the question, "Can I do this?" Well, it's Thursday again, and I share this photo of a kayak on a lake as another visual example of a pathway of sorts to encourage my friends to get on or keep walking on the path of Christian discipleship. Because while things may be impossible for man, Christ said that all things are possible with God. And while we think we might not be able to do something in our own strength, it— if it is in his will, God will help us to accomplish things we never dreamed of being possible. Last night I led one of the men from, from this, from the Freedom in Christ course through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, and while he admitted to having thoughts that denied the process of going, that denied that the process of going through the steps in repentance would be successful, Funny thing happened though. After he forgave all the people in his life for all the offenses they've ever done to him, those condemning and doubting voices were silenced. I have to admit that for a second there I thought I was going to have to square off against a manifestation of the enemy. But together we prayed, stood in the authority of Jesus Christ. That we have in Jesus Christ. And after the step on forgiveness, the rest of the process was relatively peaceful as this man confessed rebellion, pride, and all the known sins in his life, renounced and broken— broke spiritual soul ties to the people in his sexual past, and canceled any generational sins of his ancestors. The work of repentance of the Holy Spirit and this man's faith brought to the table was mighty to behold. And at the end of the process, when I asked him to listen in an extended moment of silence, he reported that things were quiet in his mind and he had an abiding sense of peace. Unforgiveness can be a real stronghold that can keep us in bondage to bitterness and to literal spiritual forces of darkness. So which was it? Was it demons? The hardness of this man's heart or the baggage of a past filled with abuse that kept him from knowing peace? The answer to that question might be only known by the Lord himself, but the good news is that when we come before the Lord and forgive those who have offended us, the bondage of bitterness is broken. Something that many people would consider impossible to forgive. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we receive, we receive the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and to guide us in the way we should go. But the Lord is gracious and allows us to have free will, to choose what path, to freely choose what path we take in life. We can choose to live life like we've always had before coming to Christ, according to the world's and our own wisdom, Or we can listen to the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Word of God to know and experience the abundant life that Christ has for us. This life of Christian discipleship is counterintuitive to how we've been conditioned to live without God, but it is possible. With God, we can turn from the world's ways and we can be transformed. We can have peace, joy, love, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. The fruit of the Spirit grows in our lives when we walk in the Spirit. And when we confess our sins and, and, and write, um, when we confess our sins and renounce, uh, the way we used to live, we, we remove the limits on what God can do for us. Uh, so as we draw into the fourth day of the work week, remember to ask yourself from time to time, that all you got? The world, the flesh, and the devil will tell you that it's all over, uh, that it's best just to pack it in and not to try anything new, to just play it safe and stay safe in the shadows of what you're familiar with. But Jesus Christ invites us to come and see. The Holy Spirit invites us to know what faith is and to experience his power to transform us and to give us a life of meaning and person— and purpose that few in this world know of. God the Father has made you for a purpose, and he wants to have peace with you through faith in Jesus Christ. And for you to be conformed to his image, to be the person that he created you to be. So let go of the sins of the past. In Christ, you're forgiven. And because you've received God's forgiveness, cast off the burden of bitterness that comes from holding on to offenses against others by forgiving everyone for everything from the heart, as the Lord commands you. God doesn't want us to suffer anymore from the things that people have done against us. The solution to our problem of bitterness is forgiveness. To set the captive free and to realize it was you. So keep walking and talking with God, then follow the Word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit, and you will discover that you have a lot more life to live, a lot more things to do, and a lot more hearts to touch than than you thought you could. With the Lord, you'll discover that you've got a lot more life left in store. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Romans 12:9, and it says, don't just pretend to love others, really love them. Hate what is wrong, hold tightly to what is good. Today's Bible verse encourages us not to be a pretender, to really love others, to hate what is wrong, and to hold tightly to what is good. One of the biggest drawbacks of pursuing a life of faith in Christendom, uh, is the perception, uh, that the people in the church are a bunch of phonies. Unfortunately, our experience may actually bear out that perception, as our past relationships in the hallowed halls of the buildings called churches may have been plagued by hypocrisy and quite possibly abuse. Some people say that they don't want to be a part of a church because of the hypocrites in the church. Unfortunately, the truth is there's hypocrisy in everyone's lives. No one lives perfectly according to the standards that they would like to hold themselves to. No one. The only perfect person was Jesus Christ. While we are called as Christians to follow Jesus, the Word of God clearly points out that we will not be able to perfectly live like Jesus did. That's why we need Jesus. So what do we do with this hypocrisy? We won't be able to be perfect, but today's verse, it, I think, is calling us to try to be genuine in our faith, to really love others, hate what is evil, and to hold on to what is good. If you don't like the phonies in the church, don't be one by having the heartfelt intention to love our neighbors as ourselves and to love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship. Um, and today we continue in Matthew 6, or Bonhoeffer does, uh, in regards to, uh, his discussion of what he calls hidden righteousness. So if you want to see where the discussion picks up from yesterday, we shared a few paragraphs from that text, and you'll find them at the end of today's blog post at mtforchrist.org. As always, uh, we, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship, not because we have authority over you and are commanding it to you, but because we were once lost and now are found. We were once broken and now have been healed. We were once in bondage and now we've been set free. And it wasn't, you know, anything we did on our own. We just followed the wisdom of the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit to lead us into a life where we know the fruit of the Spirit on a continual basis. We have peace every day as we thank the Lord for what he's done for us. And, um, out of the love we have, we can turn from the things in the past, um, and to, uh, forgive people for the things they do, and to endeavor to live a life of righteousness, to point people to Jesus Christ, to be saved and to be transformed. So we encourage everyone who's interested to check out our teachings, uh, on Christian discipleship that are based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and the word of God. We've shared our classes from 2021 that we did on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, and those are available on our podcast and our YouTube channel, which is the same name, which is M.t. Clark Christ 247. So If you want to check those things out, we invite you to do that and to apply the teachings to your life. The Lord came to save us, not just to send us to heaven, but to save us from the way we used to live independently from God. All of that wisdom, of course, is based on the Word of God, which we revere and study on a daily basis. And so we, we encourage Bible study, and the way we do that on our podcast and our YouTube channel is by sharing our Bible study discussion that we do with our good friends Arthur and Susanna Cincotti. So if you want to check those out, they're all under the heading Bible Study with the Cincottis, where Arthur Cincotti brings a topical Bible study to, to us each week, and we discuss what he's written and what the Holy Spirit, you know, brings, brings us to think of and speak on. You know, when we consider these things. And that's really what the path of Christian discipleship is, is we consider the things of God in all that we do. We look at the world and realize it's been created by God. We look at our lives and realize that, you know, God has a way for us to live, and it's probably better than anything we've— it is better, probably. It's better than anything that we would have come up on our own. So we should follow the Lord because, because he is good and he wouldn't lead you astray. So we encourage people to follow. Today for me is actually a Friday because I have to work Saturday. They give me Friday off, so today is Friday of sorts because I don't have to work tomorrow, but So I'm rejoicing today because I'll be with my wife tonight. I'm gonna go visit her, and tomorrow we have another Freedom appointment. Praise the Lord! There's another man from the Freedom in Christ course who basically go through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. If you don't know what that is, you know, I think it's like $6 online. You can buy from Amazon a copy of the Steps to Freedom in Christ. What they are are are steps or prayers really where you agree to follow the Lord and you confess the things you've done to have peace with him. And it's a process you don't have to necessarily be led through. You can go through them on your own as long as you come before God in faith. The Lord will bless, you know, what you do. So we encourage people to check out the Steps to Freedom in Christ. If you'd like to do that. You can find the label on our website, if not on the mobile app unfortunately, but if you go on the web you can see all the different topics of the various labels that we put on our post, and one of them is Steps to Freedom in Christ. And one of those posts, you know, basically has the steps in it, so you don't even have to purchase it necessarily. You can find PDFs of the Steps to Freedom in Christ, uh, online for free. So just saying, um, if you want to be set free, you have to take the steps to agree with God, repent, and, uh, discover your peace, and then maintain your peace by living a life of Christian discipleship. It's not a one-and-done blessing. Um, you know, the peace we have comes from following the Lord, so we, we have to do that every day. Um, or we get to do that every day. So we encourage people to check that out and do that. Um, and, uh, I will pray now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for all you've done in our lives, Lord. Thank you for showing us the truth and setting us free, Lord. Thank you for, uh, last night's experience of leading another person to the Steps to Freedom in Christ and watching him unburden himself from all the bitterness, of unforgiveness in his past and confessing all his sins and breaking all those soul ties and generational curses and everything he brought to the table, Lord. It was a, an example of faith in action, and I thank you for allowing me to see it, Lord. And we thank you for the faithful people who listen or read the message that we produce every day, Lord. It's just our encouragement to, uh It's just our encouragement to follow you. And Lord, we pray for you to bless our message, to touch the hearts of people and to guide them to a life of discipleship. Lord, we pray for the people listening today that you come alongside their prayer requests. Uh, Lord, everyone has needs and you know them well. And, uh, when we come alongside, uh, you in faith We know that there's good things that you have for us, Lord. So we're praying for your grace and mercy, um, to be poured out on the people listening to this message or reading this message, and, um, and to, to guide them in the way they should go, Lord, as we always pray. Um, as we go into the world today, we just pray for you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and to lead us in the things you would have us because it's our heart to follow you and to represent you on this, on this, on this earth. So Lord, help us to do that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.