The “R” Word and Living in the State of Grace Purity 806

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 a clear blue sky and blazing sun over the hump of a tree and the peak of my neighbor's house, uh, comes to us today from yours truly as I captured this spontaneous shot back on July 9th when leaving my countryside home to walk the dog. Well, it's Wednesday again, and today's pictorial offering may not— may be lacking the mountain's majesty that I usually share to represent the midweek hump, but I think it can serve as a simple reminder to see the beauty that is right outside your front door and to appreciate the simple things in life. Also, I had some technical difficulties in this, in this, well, this morning, this with this photo being delivered on my, uh, to my laptop. And while I was waiting, I was a little bit overwhelmed by the lag and the fact that I had other photos I, I could share but had no idea of their origin, as I will just grab lots of photo off of— photos off of social media to possibly use. And with time, I forget where they came from. I have confessed that weakness before, and unfortunately, I haven't instituted any measures to change it. And thus we have stumbled upon today's topic, I guess: Breaking the Sin-Confess Cycle. Have you ever heard someone say, perhaps to you, "You say you are sorry, but if you were really sorry, you wouldn't do that anymore." Duck, because if you're anything like me, those are shots fired in your direction, and those slugs hurt. If anyone ever tells you that the Christian faith is simple, they are failing to tell you about the R word—repentance. Just so, uh, just so you can see I am not legalistically making the need to change up out of thin air, I share the following verses from the New Testament. From the Apostle Peter, Acts 3:9, it says 3:19, it says, repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. 2 Peter 3:9 says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And from the Apostle Paul Acts 17:30, where he said, "Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent." And from Jesus himself, we have Matthew 4:17, where it says, "Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" And Mark 1:15, Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel." Luke 13:3, Christ said, "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." And finally, in Revelation 3:19, Jesus says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent." Okay, I hope that is sufficient to demonstrate that repentance is a fundamental part of our faith. Christians are called to believe in Christ, to put their faith in him as Lord and Savior, and to repent, to change our minds, and to decide to exchange our ways of thinking and living for God's ways, wisdom and ways. I'm pretty sure most of us know that, know that, and it is perhaps the number one reason why people resist becoming a Christian. Change is hard. And they don't want to change. Even those of us who do want to change know what a difficult thing that can be, and that's why we need— we needed and will continually need God's grace, his divine favor. God's grace shined upon us, of course, when we first came to Christ. It was God's grace that revealed to us the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and caused us to put our faith in him. But God's grace, his divine favor, doesn't leave us at salvation. Some Christians refer to a "state of grace," and although the systems that usually use that particular phrase indicate that this state is something we can move in and out of based on our behavior, the word indicates that nothing can separate us from the love of God. So I would encourage you to know that grace is a state that you have taken up permanent residency in. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, and nothing can change that. However, our attitudes and behaviors are subject to change. That's good news and bad news. The bad news is that we can be walking well in our newfound faith, but then through temptation and deception, we can decide to forget who we are in Christ and make poor sinful choices. We have formed selfish, fleshly habits of living and they are difficult to change overnight. However, because of who we are in Christ, no matter what we do, we are forgiven. When we came to Christ, all our sins—past, present, and future sins—have been forgiven. That's grace. That's why it is called Amazing Grace, because we simply can't believe it is true. And because we have been raised in a world system that has taught us that we have to work to be approved. Many will reject God's grace because they believe it is too good to be true. But it is. Anyway, the good news about our attitudes and behaviors being subject to change is that we can change them. Thus, repentance. In fact, the best evidence for the truth of Christianity are people who have come to Christ and changed the way they lived. Like me! Uh, so, so those new in Christ will try to be good, uh, now that we have said the prayer. But unless they develop their love for God, repentance is just a process of frustrating work that will be marked by failures and confessions. We will say we are sorry, but we will feel powerless to change. So why is that? Trying hard here, what's the deal? Well, the deal is you're trying to establish your freedom and victory over your besetting sins in your own strength according to the world's ways rather than turning to God's strength, wisdom, and ways. Also, you're probably subtly separating yourself from God by feeling condemned and by trying to do it yourself. Our Christian faith is a relationship with God, and that's not how it's supposed to be. We have— we have to love God, get to know God, and dedicate ourselves to our relationship with him. My bad. There we go. Um, and know the peace that comes from living in the state of grace. We have to know that even if we fail, God still loves us. That realization should be liberating. As his adopted children through faith in Jesus, God will never leave us or forsake us and will pour his grace upon us throughout our lives. His divine favor is ours, and it can be the catalyst for change. When we live in God's grace, we live in the peace of knowing that we can do no wrong in God's eyes. Now, don't get it twisted. Just because we, we have God's grace doesn't mean, uh, we can— that we won't suffer from acting like a fool, but it does mean that when we humble ourselves and decide to live according to God's ways, he will give us the power to overcome. So people— some people in your past may have said, if you loved me, you would change, but they were only human, may have had a selfish agenda, and certainly have the— certainly didn't have the power of God's grace to help you. People try to change one another through manipulation, through positive or negative reinforcement. All these methods can be effective in changing outside behaviors. They generally don't affect the heart. We can, we can do what you say, whether we like it or not, but it doesn't mean that we are convinced. It doesn't mean we are changed. However, love can sometimes motivate us to change. Love will cause us to do all kinds of things that we didn't think we were capable of. Many a human relationship has been saved because the consequence of the loss of love was hanging in the balance, and in some instances those changes were taken to heart. With God on our side, our ability to change has been greatly increased because in reality He has made us new. He doesn't have to change our heart because he will get— he will give us a new one. Um, the prophet Ezekiel prophesied about that, about the thing that God would do through Christ. In Ezekiel 36:26, he says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. When we received Christ as Lord and Savior, we received the Holy Spirit and the process to change our hearts of stone to the heart as of flesh has happened. Ever wonder why your emotions are all over the place since coming to Christ? You have a new heart. So, so let that new heart beat with the love for God who saved you and made, and made you new. Use your love for your for God as your motivation to know him more and to repent and to take heart and to take to heart his truth found in the Word of God and to apply it to your life. The good news is that we don't have to be perfect in this process of change. We just have to keep following the Lord. His grace will work in our lives the more we seek him and follow his lead. So keep walking and talking with God. You tried to change— uh, let's see. If you tried to change and— if you tried to change and failed, your failure probably caused you to stop walking, talking to him, and made you want to run away. But stop running. There is nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of anymore. God is with you, no matter what. So don't run and hide. Instead, stay with Him. Ask Him for His strength, and you will receive it. Renew your mind with His Word, and you will receive His wisdom. And if you apply it, it will transform your life. But above all, remember that repentance is the process of becoming who you were made to be, and the God of all creation is encouraging you every step of the way. Like a father teaching his children to walk, he will cheer you on. He will steady you as you go, and he will pick you up when you fall. So reach out to him, take his hand, and go with him to the new life of freedom and victory that is yours for the taking. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 1 Peter 5:7. And it says, give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Today's verse encourages us that we can give all of our worries and cares to God because of the simple fact of his love for us. He cares for us. He cares. Have you ever met someone new and come to the realization that they liked you? Have you ever, have you ever had someone express their fondness for you by helping you out in some way? If you have, you probably have had a moment where inside your mind or heart you said to yourself, "He cares!" or "She cares!" And on earth there isn't really many feelings that beat that feeling—to feel loved, to feel cared for. And God loves us. God cares about us. Sometimes in human relationships we can discover that some people people's care for us was conditional. There are heartbreaking true stories of people leaving others in relationships when the going got tough. Fair-weather friends are perhaps the mildest form of this, but even the deepest bonds of relationships like marriage or family can suffer or be broken because people are limited and can seek escape from your problems. But God's not like that. Today's verse tells us of the truth of God's tenacious and loyal love for us. It tells us that we can give all of our worries and cares to him. So now, so no matter what you're facing, or no matter how many people decide to cut and run, or just don't want to listen or hear your problems anymore, remember that God cares for you and will not only listen to your worries and cares, but will also give you the strength wisdom, and guidance to endure them and overcome them. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist, uh, my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today we're sharing from chapter 11, which declares that prayer is the primary weapon of spiritual warfare. So if you want to check that out, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource at the bottom of today's blog post. As always, we, we encourage people to walk out their Christian faith with a lifestyle of Christian discipleship. It doesn't mean you're necessarily over, you know, come under the authority of some elder or some other brother in Christ, but We come over the complete authority of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father, and we decide to walk in the Spirit. Not that we shouldn't seek out the help of our brothers in, brothers in Christ, but sometimes along the path we'll discover that we're alone. And the thing that keeps us in our faith is our relationship with God above everything else. So we make him first and foremost in our lives and we follow the way we should go based on his word. That's what we do here at mt4christ.org. We try to encourage that. Why? Because I have a church? Why? Because I want donations? No, because I lived, lived outside of the faith for most of my life and in 2010 gave my heart to Christ in a simple prayer and then the process of repentance has started, you know, and it continues to this day as, uh, you know, we discovered that our relationship is like any other relationship. It requires love and devotion and work. But the more I've listened to my Heavenly Father through His word and through, you know, my brothers and sisters in Christ and how they've interacted with our Father God, I've discovered the way of the way of peace, the pathway to joy. And it's all through surrendering to God's will and ways for our lives. So we share, basically we share some teachings I did back in 2021. I imagine they'd be a little bit different today, but I think they're still good. So if you want to check those out, they're on podcast under Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and The Bondage Breaker. They're based on God's word and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson, who wrote those books, um, from Freedom in Christ Ministries, of which I am a Community Freedom Ministry associate. And currently I just do Zoom classes, uh, basically for the ministry currently, but always want to encourage people every day of my life, um, that this is the way, the truth, and the life everlasting, and peace here on earth is through Jesus Christ alone. And we have to stand on that truth and share it and encourage people that he cares for you, you know. And that's why, that's why we change. That's why we, we repent, not because it's the right thing and the tasty way to do it, but because He cares for you. And if you listen to the one who cares for you, you'll discover that everything he says leads you to good. Um, so, uh, surrender to him and follow his lead. As always, we encourage the study of God's word. That's how we renew our minds and know this truth, is we have to study the word. And so we encourage that through our Bible study that we share once a week. Where I get together with Arthur and Susanna Cinquatti and my wife, and we just sit around whatever Arthur gets from the Holy Spirit to present, and we discuss, you know, how this life is lived in the light of God's truth. So that's what we do here at the podcast. We thank everyone for listening and, and for following the blog. We— and so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for all the things you've done for us, Lord. Thank you for showing us the truth of who Jesus Christ is and for bringing us into your kingdom through him. Excuse me. Um, Lord God, we pray for everyone listening today. We pray for their walk. We pray for, uh, the situations that are happening in lives. their Lord, we pray for your grace to be upon them and to be working in their lives. So we come alongside their prayer requests, Lord, and we ask that you grant their petitions according to your will and to benefit them and help them along their way. Lord, we just pray today, as always, we pray for you to go before us. We pray for you to show, show us the things we need to know, open our eyes to the beauty in this world and the, the things we need to know to do the best job we can at being your children. Uh, Lord, lead us into the good things we need to do to represent you here on Earth, because that's all we want to do, Lord. You've given us life and life more abundantly, and we want to use that life to give you glory. Lord, we love you, we thank you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.