The Least of These - Possum Trot - Hope, Problems, Good Works & Life - Purity 1394

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a single man approaching a microphone on the Hudson Riverfront Bandstand as the sun in blue skies shines over the Hudson River, Old Glory, and a hastily erected cross comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene at the Parade for Jesus gathering at Henry Hudson River Park back on October 5th, 2019. Well, it's Saturday and I share today's photo in remembrance of good causes and works of the past and in hopes of— for more in the future after I watched Angel Studios' The Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot at a nearly empty theater in Wilton last night. Besides my wife, there were approximately 6 other souls in attendance for for the screening of Angel Studios' latest release, which relates the true story of Donna and Reverend Martin as they ignited a fire in the hearts of their rural church in East Texas to embrace kids in the foster system that nobody else would take, inspiring 22 families to adopt 77 children. The movie was heart-wrenchingly honest, moving, and it is my hope that the Lord will use it to move people to consider adopting and helping some of the least these. Regardless of the various points of theological debates or ideas on how we should live our lives as Christians, Jesus's words convict us to help others. He said in Matthew 25:31-46, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. And he will set the— sorry. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger, and take You in, or naked, and clothe You, Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' Then he will also say to those on the left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. Me, and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Not only does Jesus indicate here that helping those in need is a nice thing to do, but he seems to indicate that if we don't help others, our hardness of heart or selfish attitudes will be a contributing cause to our damn— of our damnation. However, our salvation is won by faith, not works. But paradoxically, our faith in Jesus, if it is genuine, should result in good works, as the Apostle Paul makes clear in Ephesians 2:8-10, which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. But the understanding of being saved by faith alone, which is true, was abused to inaction even in the early days of the church, causing James to advise his faithful yet inactive brethren that— and which he wrote in James 2:17— thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James wanted to make it clear that Jesus called us to love one another and obey his commandments, to love our neighbors as ourselves with acts of service Our faith in Jesus and our new lives in Christ should cause us to do something. The good news is that there is lots of work out there to do. Angel Studios releases faith-based films to fire up our faith, to fire our faith, to live by faith, fire up our faith, to live by faith, and to join the causes that more Christians could be helping with. Last year's The Sound of Freedom championed the cause of human trafficking. This year's Sound of Hope champions fostering or adopting children. Similarly, in 2017, Netflix's 13 Reasons Why has highlighted the issues of troubled youth to highlight causes surrounding substance abuse and suicide prevention. For a Christian seeking to help the least of these, There are a plethora of problems, charities, and causes out there to support and be a volunteer for. Personally, my zeal as someone who was rescued by Jesus and delivered from hopelessness, substance abuse, depression with a history of suicidal thoughts, anger, sex addiction, toxic relationships, demonically driven low self-esteem, and anxiety caused me to volunteer at my local church's recovery ministry. That I eventually attempted to champion to my local community, even going as far as volunteering for other causes and attending other causes' events to do something to help my community raise awareness about substance abuse recovery and suicide prevention. I was even part of my church's jail ministry in attempts to help the least of these and to inspire a movement of setting the captives free. Through teaching the freedom in Christ message wherever I could and launching my own freedom, my Community Freedom Ministry. And that's where the bad news comes in. While we can choose a cause to fight for, we can't save the world. We can't fix anything, um, in an ultimate sense. Even Jesus tempers our misguided belief that we can build heaven on earth with his words in Matthew 26:11, where he reminds his disciples For you have the poor with you always, but me you do not always have— do not have always. But that hard truth that there will always be poor, thus there will always be problems that stem out of poverty and the sin of this world, don't mean that we are to stop doing good. I don't mean to discourage good works at all. Our faith in Christ has prepared us to do good works, remember, and Christ calls us to do them. Even though our efforts will fail to change the world, we don't— we do good works for our fellow man, but also for a higher purpose, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:16, where he said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Our good works, our good works give God glory and point people to Jesus, where people can receive real help and where lives can be saved. The Sound of Hope, the story of Possum Trot, realistically depicts the difficulties that can come with serving the least of these, but it also shows that our lives can touch the lives of others for good. And when we make our lives a little less selfish, it gives God glory. So go see that movie, uh, watch The Sound of Freedom. If you have Netflix, watch 13 Reasons Why. Parental guidance is suggested. And let their stories inspire you to fight for people's souls, lives, and well-being. We won't be able to change everything, but we should do something good that will give us a purpose for living beyond ourselves and give our Father in Heaven glory. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation The next section verses come from the section on example, good or bad. Our resource notes all of Romans 14:1-21 here, but it highlights Romans 14:19-21 in the New American Standard Bible, which says, so then we pursue the things which make for peace in the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God. For the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. So today's verses are the first of two passages, or well, actually, well, no, it's the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the seventh point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on example, good or bad. And the seventh point is: One must be ready to give up that which is in itself indifferent rather than to cause another to sin. Today's verses continue in the vein of where we left off yesterday, encouraging us to sacrifice our freedoms if it will prevent another— another's faith from being shaken or will cause them to stumble. We are all growing in maturity in our faith, and some younger quote-unquote younger believers may not understand the intricacies of our freedom in Christ. And so we have to think of others rather than ourselves and how we choose to live. We should never let our, our choices cause others to stumble into sin or walk away from the faith if we can prevent it. Sacrificing our desires for others is another good work that gives God glory. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.com, 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 According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, which is a collection of devotional entries. Um, and in, in this devotion, Alford prompts us to read a chapter of scripture Today's chapter is 2 Corinthians 4, and from that chapter he shares from verse 1, which says, "Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart." And Stephen Alford writes, "Oh Lord, this is a real message for my heart, and as I prepare for service, I would do so inasmuch as I have obtained mercy For I am conscious that I shall otherwise faint, or lose heart. Therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Verse 16. This verse is also very encouraging. The mercy is that which brings me into the position where my inward man is renewed and strengthened to compensate the fainting and failing outward man. And Alfred ends his devotional entry by praying, I would receive mercy then from your loving hand, O Lord. Amen. And yeah, so since we have this ministry, we've also received mercy, so we don't really, you know, we don't lose heart. Uh, that is really pointing to the difficulties of of ministry. It's going to be hard doing good works in this world broken by sin. Um, you know, that last night's movie really highlighted, you know, how you can suffer for your faith by doing good, um, you know, financially or socially or, you know, from stress or problems that arise, you know, in the midst of doing good works for the least of these. You know, I shared the, uh, the today's photo from the March for Jesus, which is a parade that happened in Hudson back in 2019. And even though I was part of a charismatic church that believed in the gifts of the spirits and was attended by, you know, close to 200 people on, on every Sunday, um, from my church There were 2 people that attended that parade, and, um, you know, it wasn't put on by my church. In my church's, you know, my former church's defense, it wasn't put on by my church. Uh, it was sort of a ragtag event. Um, it was a Parade for Jesus. Um, you know what, in, in retrospect, there was nothing said that was inflammatory, uh, one way or the other. It was really, uh, it was a parade that was basically— it was intended to encourage people to have faith in Jesus. And it ended with a gathering at the river and with a free barbecue meal and some inspiring worship and messages about our faith. Um, so any misgivings that any of the churches that didn't attend or any of the people that didn't attend for this small event back in 2019, you know, were misguided in my opinion. Um, it wasn't a, you know, it was sort of a ragtag bunch, uh, you know, uh, Marching for Jesus. But, um, I believe it gave him glory. And, um, you know, but I suppose in, in some sense, you know, the parade may have been misguided because sometimes we think our efforts will start a movement or start a revival that will spark the hearts of people automatically, you know, and suddenly people will come running to our cause and suddenly be moved to do good works. That might happen for some people, but when it's done, you know, done in the name of Jesus, if if somebody's not religious or doesn't know the Lord, they're not going to be real, you know, they're usually not inspired to come alongside you. And no offense to Christians, but in my zeal to do community outreach and volunteering for secular causes here and there that were good causes, I rarely ran into any Christians, you know. Not, not for just reporting, you know, just reporting, um, you know, what I— what was true. And that's some, like I said, some of the hard facts is you get fired up for Jesus, run out, want to save the world, but the world doesn't want you to save it. And your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ aren't necessarily going to jump on your bandwagon. Um, so do we get offended and stop doing good works, or Or should we continue? Well, we should continue. And that's why we need that mercy, that we don't lose heart from doing good works. And like, like I said, the people who produced that movie probably would have been pretty disappointed that 6 people showed up at the showing on Friday night at the theater I was at, you know, because it's— it is a definite need in our society. Foster, fostering. But as the movie highlighted, it's— there's some real, real-life pain and problems that come along with helping others. So you can sort of understand, and sometimes people don't want to see a problem, so they don't get inspired to— oh my, oh, don't show me the suffering people here, there, or wherever, because I'll feel convicted that I have to help them., but I won't help them, and thus I'm just gonna feel bad about myself, and they won't get help, and I won't feel good anymore. This is the hard truth of life, you know, that life has its problems, that we can fix things, but we can't fix everything. We sort of have to choose our battles and ask the Lord to move us. You know, that was one thing that was apparent in the film, that these people felt moved by God to help, and they encouraged others who also felt moved by God to help. And, you know, 22 families helped, and 22 families, you know, for real, like, suffered because they chose to help. You know, some of these kids had some real, real problems, and they were problems. And who knows, you know, we saw the highlights of the good things that, you know, sort of happened to the end. But that's a lot of people. And there's, you know, as one of the characters warned the pastor's wife, you know, Warner's like, I know somebody who adopted someone, and, you know, one of them was such a problem that they had to give them back, and the other one ended up in prison. And, you know, it was a lot of heartbreak She warned the pastor's wife to be careful what they encouraged, the good works that they encouraged, because it could have bad results, make people suffer. But they did it anyway. It's an inspiring story. But they kept it real in terms of the very real problems of dealing with trying to do good for others. Sometimes you can't help anybody. Sometimes you can, but you know, we can't control others. But when the Lord guides us, we really don't have any regrets, even if it is— even if it does end up in a disaster. Ask me how I know. You know, so anyway, it was a good movie. You should see it and support the cause if the Lord puts it on your heart. There's plenty of causes out there and you should do something. Do some sort of good work. Do some good works as a reflection of your faith. And of course, you know, let people know why you're doing it. Well, I'm a Christian, that's why I'm doing it. The Lord put this on my heart to do it. God helped me and I feel compelled to help others as Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. It's not a big gospel message, but it could inspire someone to, you know, pursue their— pursue a life of faith too. So we do that. We do good works. We do something to give God glory. And part of my something is this little message of encouragement. So let God have the glory for this. Anyway, today is Saturday. It is It is raining. It was pouring just a minute ago outside my window here in eastern New York. I don't know what the day holds. The weather doesn't look like a beach day is going to happen, but we'll, we'll thank God for this day and, and rejoice in it all the same. Anyway, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, teach us the way we should go. Help us to be, you know, stir our hearts to do good works for others and give us the mercy. We're doing good for others and we're suffering for it. We need your help one way or the other, Lord. We pray for anyone listening today that they'd be encouraged and that they'd press into their faith. And, um, Lord, we pray for you to bless them, come alongside them in their walk of faith and their prayer request. And Lord, while you're at it, you can do that for me too. Um, I could use all the help you can give, um, every day, and, uh, we appreciate it. So 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 your kingdom, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.