The Paradox of Our New Life and Putting Away Childish Things - Purity 872

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me on M.t. Clark on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the stark contrast between what I believe to be winter wheat and a field of corn ready to be harvested comes to you— comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene while out walking along Waite Road in Easton, New York back on October 14th. Well, it is Wednesday, and although there is no hump in today's photo, I thought that the stark line of contrast between the old and new crops could adequately visually represent the midpoint of our work week. And the thing about looking at a midpoint of transition is that the lesson we learn from it has a lot to do with our perspective. In today's photo, we could look at the fresh young winter wheat and think that represents our youth. And look at the corn that is, is past its prime as old age, and it is only waiting for the Grim Reaper to come take it away. Now, while there is obviously some truth in seeing things that way, that we grow, age, and die, the Christian disciple understands that there is more to the story of our lives than what we can easily discern with our observations of life on earth. In John 11:25-26, Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" So although none of us are as green as we used to be and are increasingly approaching the time we will be harvested There is a fresh new life in God's kingdom waiting for us. The world would tell us that we are running out of life, but the truth for the Christian is that we are increasingly getting closer to the culmination of the life God is preparing for us, a life in his presence that goes on forever. Many are concerned with the end times, but for the Christian Christ's return will be a new beginning. As much as the end times and the contemplations of our physical death and new lives in heaven, or the new heavens and new earth, can capture our imagination, the Lord hasn't revealed those things to us perfectly just yet. And while they should give us hope rather than fear, Christ's final words, uh, to us didn't tell us to hold on to the end and wait for heaven. Christ said in Matthew 28:18-20, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen." So Christ told us that he was sharing his authority with us to go and make disciples in all the world. And He made a point to tell us to baptize them and to teach them to observe, to actually do what He has commanded us. And, and He encouraged us with the assurance that He would be with us even to the end of the age. So when I look at today's photo, I look at the scene from right to left. I see the fading cornfield as my past life of confusion, worldliness, and sin. And I see the fresh green winter wheat as my new life in Christ, which is alive, growing, and thriving, even when the changing season may cause you to think that the times of new growth are over. Uh, the world system tells us that we are continually past our prime and that life as we know it is increasingly over. You can buy over-the-hill-themed birthday supplies for almost any age. I saw a 30th birthday cake with a tombstone that said, "Here lies my youth." Yup, it's all over, you're 30. But that's a narrative that starts in childhood. When we think 13, remember when your friends or siblings became teenagers? 16, 18, 20, or 21 is old, and it never ends. Our world system is always lamenting our increasing age because it doesn't know the hope that the Christian should know. The world doesn't know that this life is a preparation ground, a stage for the establishment of God's kingdom. Paradoxically, as much as the world seems to love youth, our experience— our experience teaches us that youth is not necessarily something we want to covet. When we look back, we should see just how ignorant, foolish, and inexperienced we were. And be grateful that we no longer live there. We know better now, and that's a good thing. This really plays out in the life of a Christian discipleship. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things." When we become mature in Christ, we put away the childish things that we so desperately held on to in our ignorance that we thought were important, were good, or would fulfill us. As we grow in our faith, our understanding becomes mature and reveals that the things we thought would fulfill us or make us happy, like material possessions, euphoric experiences, or worldly accomplishments, are revealed as the things that are shallow and temporary. And as we go through time, we see that those things are the things that are fading away, not us. Those things that are, uh, those things are the things that should lament the passage of time as their glory fades, as their ability to last and fulfill us are revealed to be limited, if not an outright lie. As we let go of those childish things, our peace increases as the weight of of carrying them through life with us is relieved. As we place our value on the things that ultimately matter and that will last—our relationship with God and our fellow disciples that we have hope for—we don't fear the passage of time and instead rejoice over the increase in our knowledge and experience we gain of the Lord's meaning and purpose for our lives. As we keep walking and talking with God, we can know him more and we can understand the truth behind verses like Psalm 23:1 that says, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." When we follow the LORD, the Good Shepherd, we do not lack for anything because in Him, in Christ, we have everything we need. And we can know the truth of Psalm 23:6 that tells us, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This path of Christian discipleship, following Jesus, is a path where we continually experience the goodness and mercy of the Lord all the days of our lives. And when we walk out those days, we can have peace knowing that we will one day dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 9:18, which says, "But the needy will not be ignored forever; the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed." Today's Bible verse assures us that the needy will not be ignored forever and that the hopes of the poor will not be crushed. If you read Psalm 9, the previous verse describes the fate of the wicked. Who ignore God as going down to the grave. So the implication here is that these needy and poor who will not be ignored forever and whose hopes won't be crushed do not ignore God. Psalm 9 encourages us all rather to praise the Lord because we know him and his goodness, and even if we find ourselves in times of need and may be poor, our ultimate hope is fulfilled in our relationship with him. We will not go down to the grave but will be saved. While we are never guaranteed lives of free of suffering and filled with riches, um, Christians are given the richness of life that comes from being in the Lord's presence and having that assurance that our hopes will not always be crushed because one day we will see God face to face and spend eternity with him. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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 Kausa Discipleship, and we continue sharing from his exposition of Matthew 5 with a section he entitled Woman, and and we conclude that section today. So if you were following along, you can see how it ends by going to mtforchrist.org, going to the bottom of the blog post, and checking out that resource. As always, we encourage people to walk in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit on the path of Christian discipleship. It means we, you know, observe all that, you know, God commanded us to do, that Jesus taught us to do. Um, that includes baptism. So if you're not baptized, you know, you shouldn't stand, uh, on an infant baptism as your baptism. Um, as an adult, you should put away the childish things and pick up the, the things of the Lord and maybe realize that You know, if you're commanded to be baptized, maybe you should make a decision for yourself, um, and confirm your faith and encourage others and their faith by being baptized. We just had the baptisms at my local church this past weekend, and, you know, it was a great moment of victory for the body of Christ. As, um, in my service, there was 4 people who who got up and, you know, basically declared that they believed in Christ as their Lord and Savior, and they wanted to show their faith, you know, make a public show of it, you know, to tell everyone, I'm following the Lord by being baptized. It shows— they say that it's a visual representation of the inner change that's already happened in our faith, that we've come from death to life. And that's what the waters of baptism represent, is that we go down, we die to our old life when we go beneath the water, and we rise to the new life in Christ when we come out of the water, you know. And scripture bears that out, you know. We are baptized with him, baptized into his death, and we're resurrected with Christ. That means we lay down the old life of sin, confusion, and worldliness, and we pick up the new life of you know, repentance. And as an instructor, basically, who does the Freedom in Christ course, I'm leading men in a process of repentance, basically. And while I have great hope, I, you know, I wish I could say more, you know. In fact, today's blog post is going to be about that, so maybe I'll write about that tomorrow. But in short, for those listening to the podcast, you get this exclusive You know, when we repent, we want to look at our lives and change it. Um, what do you mean? Well, you know, you want to look at the things you do, the things you don't do, and what you should do according to the Word of God. Um, you know, there's freedom in Christ. You know, the truth of our salvation is in grace. We really don't have to do anything but put our faith in Christ. But he doesn't really reject it, you know, he doesn't really you know, that commandment to go and make disciples and observe everything that he's taught us sort of indicates that we're not just supposed to sit around, you know, exalting over our salvation. Although as a Christian practice, I would recommend it. You should be proud of your salvation and you should, you know, rejoice over it. But you should have so much joy in your heart that you transform your life by the Word of God. You renew your mind through it and you change the things that don't represent God's kingdom. You know, there's, there's, for instance, you know, the sins of the flesh. If you're into, you know, alcohol and drugs, it's time to repent and turn from those things. If you're into overeating, you're supposed to take care of the body. The temple of the Lord. And be wise and discerning in the things you put in the temple. And try to rebuild the temple and straighten out the temple. It'll make you feel better. Ask me how I know. Also, in terms of what we keep, you know, before our eyes, you know, we might want to turn away from the secular forms of entertainment that depict violence, sex, and the occult. Currently, I'm going to, you know, I'm encouraging some people, and I suspect, I don't know, but I suspect that there may be some occult things in some of these guys' houses. You know, we're to put these things away, these childish things away. Like if you're into dragons, that's not a good thing. You know what I mean? You know, oh, come on, is that really? Well, sort of a representation of the enemy. So yikes. It doesn't mean you can't watch Dungeons and Dragons, but it should make you aware that, uh, you shouldn't idolize them either. So yeah, the good news is when we repent, there's lots to repent of. And, uh, you know, as we keep walking, talking with God, more and more is revealed to us of the things that, you know, are childish and foolish. That we need to take off. The good news is when we sacrifice those things, when we give those things up, we grow in our peace, we grow in our freedom, we grow in our joy. So, you know, it's a process. We're not supposed to be lazy Christians. We're supposed to— even if you, you know, weren't busy making other disciples, maybe making yourself a disciple would keep you busy, you know, by doing all that he's commanded us to to do. Love your neighbor and serve people. Do good works, you know, serve the church. Um, you know, you shouldn't be bored in your faith. If you are, you stop, you know, no offense, but if you, if you're bored in your Christian faith, you stop seeking the Lord. Um, you know how many Christian books are out there? You know how many Bible, Bibles there are? Have you stopped reading the word of God? Have you seen how many Bible commentaries there are? There's so much that we can learn about the things of God. Even if we were just to do academic studies, we'd be busy for the rest of our lives. But the true, you know, the true joy of our salvation comes through our following the Lord, living our lives this way, not just agreeing in our heads, but, you know, letting our faith be an expression of the way we live our lives. And so I've come to discover it, and, you know, When I see a group of men, you know, have great hope and learning about who they are in Christ and about how they're getting peace through repentance, I can't help but say this is what every Christian needs. And we're not just talking about the recovery Christians or whatever. We're talking about that self-righteous guy who doesn't, you know, he's got it all figured out. Truth is, you don't. You know, you're like a child posturing, thinking you're all grown up now, but you're not prepared for the end of life. This world system gives you the answers to life. It's called successful career, family, retirement, and death on the beach. But you're forgetting something. There's a God to answer to for your life. And paying your bills and, you know, leaving behind an inheritance are good things, but that don't really mean anything in the kingdom of God. And, you know, living separated from him, um, without having peace in him, and, you know, not answering that command in some way, you know, you'll be accountable. Um, you know, are you representing the kingdom? Are you pointing people to Jesus Christ? Even those minimal things you know, I'll give you credit for. But if you're living a secular life where there's no God, it's like, how, how can you do this? How can you base your identity on, on these things that are going to pass away? I have great concern for many people in my life because there's no God consciousness. And I understand, because believe me, for most of my life it was me, you know. I didn't have any cause to, you know, wonder about the big things in life or, you know, spiritual meaning. I thought— unfortunately, my view was somewhat atheistic. It was like, this world is all that there is and there's nothing beyond it. It's a lie of the enemy. So we have to pray for people and encourage them to follow the Lord as much as we can. And that's why we do, you know, a podcast and all this stuff. Just to try to encourage people. And for, you know, really they're for the people who are in the Kingdom, to let people know, you know, that you can grow in your faith, you can have victory and freedom, and you can encourage other people to go that way too. So that's it for today. You know, I'm not poor and needy, but guess what? I do need that job to pay my bills. So we have to get to work and Uh, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for all that you provide. You provide us with life and life more abundantly through your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, we just thank you so much for the things that you've shown us and the things you've led us through and the things you're leading us to. Or we just thank you, um, for the gift of your word and your wisdom and the gift of your Son. That led us out of the darkness into light and encourages us to keep going and to share with others the things that you've taught us. Um, Lord, we just pray for the people listening today, that they'd be encouraged in their faith, that being a Christian is a really great thing, and that somehow they found it. They found the answers to life and death, and they are safe in your arms. And Lord, we just We come alongside them as they go through this world that is totally against you and totally against us. Um, Lord, we just pray for them and their prayer requests today. We have several people who need healing, uh, Lord, we cry out for them. And we have other people who are going through spiritual battles, Lord, that we want you to help them to stand in faith, to stop doubting, start believing and start receiving the victory that they already have. Um, Lord, we just pray for them today. Lord, we pray for Jason S. as we, uh, prepare today to lead him through the Steps to Freedom in Christ this afternoon. Lord, we pray for me and him to be delivered safely to that appointment and guided through it with the power of the Holy Spirit. Um, and Lord, as always, we pray for you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see, open our minds and hearts to the the things you want to reveal, and to lead us into the things you should— you want us to do today. Help us to be the best people we can be, to represent who we are in Christ, to take care of our families, to do our jobs, you know. Help us to do, do the best we can do to represent, most importantly, your kingdom and who you made us to be. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.