The First Step Towards the Abundant Life Purity 835

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo, uh, view of blue skies over the Hudson River comes to us from Tammy Lynn Clark as she shared this scene on social media from yesterday's drive up River Road between Easton and Schuylerville, New York. Uh, well, it is Tuesday, and as I will be facilitating the second meeting of the Men's Freedom in Christ course on Zoom this evening, I thought I would share this roadside view and water pathway as an encouragement to all to keep walking and talking with God on the narrow path of Christian discipleship. I am so excited at the prospect of tonight's discussion because we will be discussing the spiritual reality of the transformation that happens the moment we put our faith in Christ. Christ. Our focus verse will be 2 Corinthians 5:17 that says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." And I can't wait to go through the lesson material to explain how this is a fact and is the fundamental foundation for a life of freedom and victory in Christ. Something happens when when you put your faith in Jesus. Something happens when you make Christ your Lord and Savior. Your spirit is given life as the Holy Spirit comes to indwell you the moment you put your faith in Jesus. The problem is that the world, the flesh, and the devil don't want you to know that you are a new creation, and they actively try to deceive and discourage Christians from knowing who they are in Christ because the spiritual forces of darkness and the world system want to keep us in bondage to prevent us from sharing the truth of the new and eternal life that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Satan hates God and mankind, and as Christ told us in John 10:10, the thief comes to— comes— does not come except to kill and to except— pardon me— uh, the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. And Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. The enemy seeks to destroy us, but Christ came to give us an abundant life in him. And the tragic reality of this battle between good and evil is that so many Christians are not experiencing the abundant life of victory and freedom that Christ came to give us. Our Christian faith is not merely something we are just to believe in. It is an abundant life that we are to live out in the world every day of our lives. When we walk in the Spirit by living according to God's ways and by staying connected to his presence or present through prayer and reading his word, the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, um, patience, and self-control grow in our lives. But in order to— for us to experience this spiritual reality in the world of the living that bears experiential fruit and transforms us into the people that God created us to be We have to take the first step of faith to know who we are in Christ, to embrace our new identity, and to agree to live according to it. The Who I Am in Christ list is based on the Word of God—look up the reference scriptures—and was compiled by Dr. Neil Anderson to help Christians to understand that they are accepted, secure, and significant in Christ. I'll be sharing it tonight, so I share it here and encourage all to copy it, to study it, and live according to it. The Who Am I— the Who I Am in Christ list says: I am accepted in Christ. I am God's child. I am Christ's friend. I have been justified. I am united with the Lord and one with him in spirit. I have been bought with a price. I belong to God. I am a member of Christ's body. I am a saint. I have been adopted as God's child. I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. I am complete in Christ. I am secure in Christ. I am free forever from condemnation. I am assured that all things work together for good. I am free from the condemning charges against me. I cannot be separated from the love of God. I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God. I am a citizen of heaven. I am hidden with Christ in God. I can find grace and mercy to help me in time of need. I am born of God, and the evil one cannot touch me. I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. I am confident that the good work God has begun in me will be perfected. I am significant in Christ. I am the salt and light of the earth. I am a branch of the true vine, a channel to His life. I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit. I am a personal witness of Christ. I am God's temple. I am a minister of reconciliation. I am God's coworker. I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. I am God's workmanship. I may approach God with freedom and confidence. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. So now that you know who you are in Christ, walk in the new abundant life that God has given you through Jesus Christ. Read it once a day for 40 days to renew your mind. Or as a continual daily practice as I do, and watch the way that the Holy Spirit guides you into the life where you can have the peace that goes beyond all understanding regardless of the circumstances you encounter as you keep on walking and talking with God. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Matthew 18:4. And it says, "Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Today's Bible verse are the words of Jesus, and they remind us that the pathway to greatness in his kingdom comes from humbling ourselves and coming to him with childlike faith. Children are vulnerable. Without caregivers, children die or live like savages. Ever— have you ever read, uh, Lord of the Flies? Um, without authority, structure, guidance, and care, a group of schoolboys stranded on their own quickly turned to a system of survival of the fittest with elements of pagan idolatry, where the strong dominate and literally kill the weak. But Christ tells us to be great in his kingdom, we are to humble ourselves and and he points to the innocence of childhood to demonstrate the quality of faith and trust we are to have in him. Children trust their parents to take care of them. Their safety and protection is given completely into the care of others without question. Christ wants us to trust him, and the Bible gives us his words and, and his example as how we should live. To experience new and eternal life, we need to put our trust in Jesus. We need to put our faith in, in Christ. And to be great, we need to follow in his example as a humble servant leader and share the love of God that we have been given. If we trust Jesus, we humble ourselves and make him the Lord of our life and will model our lives after his. He is the way of salvation, and he is the way to an abundant life of peace. To experience it, we need to simply humble ourselves and trust Jesus enough to follow him. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where we share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we begin— well, we continue sharing from, uh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship. And today we're still in chapter 1, which is Costly Grace, and we're picking it up. Basically, I just wrote continued because we're chopping up the text a little bit and we're trying to keep it thematic, basically where it's not too jarring from day to day. But Bonhoeffer's words are based on the Word of God and understanding of Christian theology and discipled life, and I highly recommend it. And that's why we're doing Bonhoeffer's discipleship class, or teaching, on Thursday nights on YouTube. So if you want more, you know, basically of Bonhoeffer's classic, The Cost of Discipleship. We'll be doing a weekly informal study of his work and sharing his words on YouTube. So we invite everyone to go to the bottom of our blog entries to find, find our YouTube link and to find a link to our podcast, um, the M.t. Clark Christ 24/7 podcast, available on most major platforms. As anyone listening to this probably knows, but our YouTube channel's there as well. And so we invite you to go there to check out that, you know, to check out our teachings as we've done previous studies on Victory Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. So if you're not in my men's group for Freedom in Christ, doesn't mean you can't be in the group, be in the course. Um, you really don't have an excuse. The Freedom in Christ course is available. You would just need to purchase the participant's guide and listen to the teachings on YouTube or on the podcast and, you know, reach out and ask to be led through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, or, you know, read through and pray through the steps yourself. You know, this is how we get free, and we share these resources so people can experience their freedom. And the abundant life that Christ came us to give. And always, even though, you know, time is short in the morning sometimes, and I hesitated to do my Bible study because things were getting hectic, but I pressed in and I made sure I got some Bible in me. So we, we encourage people to read the Word of God because it's how we renew our mind and how we, um, how we grow as a Christian. Is through the actual reading of the Bible and agreeing with the Bible and living according to its principles. So we encourage people to do that, and we do that on the podcast by sharing a Bible study discussion that we do once a week with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti called Bible Study with the Sincottis. That's available on the podcast and the, um, and the YouTube channel. As I move away from my mic, if it got distant for a minute there, I was leaning back and relaxing. Uh, so, um, yeah, yeah, we are to get our rest too. So, you know, um, our walk with Christ should never feel like a march as much as a walk. You know, we're, we're, um, we're examining our lives and we're trying to be in harmony with the Lord by living according to him and by, by staying in his presence. Uh, it should never feel like a set of rules or things you have to do, um, as much as a relationship with the Lord to guide you into the way you should go. Not that we shouldn't repent of things and, you know, be disciplined to overcome the besetting sins in our life, but, um, you know, we don't do it in our own strength. We, we lean on the Lord in prayer and by following him, by making a commitment in this relationship to God that we're going to follow him from here to eternity. So we might as well walk with him. You know, I hate to say it, but when we step onto the path of Christian discipleship, our old lives are over, um, you know. So, uh, not that, you know, that's a bad thing. Believe me, from a life of brokenness to where I am now, I have no regrets. I look to more, you know, to conform myself to the image of Christ more and more, as the Word of God indicates we should. Why? For our benefits and for his glory. That's why. God gave us life in the first place, and he welcomes us into his kingdom. And when we get that invitation, we should take it and share it with others. So that's our mission here at the blog and the podcast and the YouTube channel is just to encourage people to live, you know, to discover the life of discipleship. And, you know, I'd like to point out basically that discipler is not M.t. Clark, it's not your pastor at church, it's the Holy Spirit. Um, we can get guidance and teaching and support from our brothers and sisters in Christ, in the body of Christ, but, you know, there's really not supposed to be anyone between us and God. So you shouldn't be getting your spiritual teachings, you know, through some, you know, agent. Or, you know, what should I do now, Pastor? Um, follow the Lord, seek the Lord, and, um, you know, ask him. We ask the Lord and he'll guide us. So yeah, take responsibility for your walk. That is basically what I'm trying to say. Time to grow up in Christ. Yikes. Sorry. Harsh. Ouch. Anyway, that's it. You know, when we need help and we need guidance and we need friends and brothers and sisters that come alongside us. So I'm not trying to discourage, you know, membership in a local church. Quite the contrary. The local church will help you to grow, help you to learn, and help you to figure out your purpose in Christ. It could just be right within the local church where your ministry of humble obedience and servanthood come into play to renew your mind and show you what you can do. So we encourage you to seek the Lord and follow where He leads you and be a part of a local church where you can worship Him and serve Him. Um, so that's that. Today's Tuesday. Um, I am praying this morning, um, because, uh, they threatened me with forced overtime this evening. So I'm asking for anyone listening today to pray that we get volunteers, um, so I don't have to do forced overtime because I need to get back home to lead that Zoom, uh, Zoom group. Um, so I'm asking for prayer this morning for myself that someone at Verizon will volunteer to do the buried service work, um, this evening so I don't get forced into it, or to give me the strength to carry through, do the overtime, and somehow get back in time to do the Zoom meeting. Um, so we're praying for that this morning. We're asking for your prayers, and I'm praying for you. I don't know what your situations are, Um, but if you're listening to this podcast, I'm asking for the Lord to come alongside you in your prayer request and to, and to bless you with his divine favor, his grace. So let's do this. We'll pray for one another. Um, and, uh, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you for all that you do, and we know that you are in control, and we will accept whatever, whatever we, we get. And but we are asking for your help, um, and we're, we're asking for you to go before all of us today to open our eyes to the things we need to see and the things we need to do. And, um, you know, that we can walk in the abundant life with peace regardless of the circumstances we face, um, knowing that you're with us and that you will strengthen and guide us as we go. Um, Lord, we pray for, um, all the people listening today, that they'd be blessed with their divine grace and with your divine grace, and that you would guide them in the way they should go today, um, and help them along the way from here to eternity. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.