The Seeker Friendly Way to Freedom - Purity 1410

Good morning, welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or, or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or you can watch it on YouTube. Uh, good morning. Today's photo of a pathway of blue skies and clouds reflected on the surface of some unknown body of water somewhere in South Australia. Comes to us from Dave Bond Photography, as Dave shared this scene on social media back on June 16th, 2022. There we go. And well, it's Thursday, and I share Dave's heavenly photo as a visual reminder to look up to God's ways and as an invitation to step onto the path of Christian discipleship to experience what being a citizen of heaven feels like. Last night we began a new season of the Celebrate Freedom support group with some fresh faces, and our leadership team did our best to welcome the newcomers, to assure them that we were happy to have them join us, and that our Wednesday night meeting is a safe place where they can be open, honest, and where they can simultaneously walk away from their hurts, habits, and hangups as they draw closer their relationship to God. As I think about the encouraging words that were spoken by our team at our meeting last night, I can't help but feel the joy over what the Lord has done in our lives and the awe over how God has brought us together in unity, even though our experiences of turning to him were all different. Uh, one of our leaders shared their testimony of how they were slowly drawn into a deeper walk with God after years of of going through the motions of quote unquote just going to church until one day things just started to click, uh, where suddenly this Christian faith started to make sense to them in a way it hadn't before. They experienced the reality of God in their lives, which led them to surrender their doubts and began to really believe, which led them to be more vocal about their faith. And to start serving at their local church. Their testimony described the process of how a religion gets replaced by a relationship when we humbly pursue the Lord and let him into our lives. Our leader's testimony bore evidence of the fact that things really start, start to happen in our relationship with God when we decide to trust Jesus as Lord and we just had to pick up our cross and follow him. So last night we tried to impress upon the newcomers that they had come to the right place, and that if they would keep coming to our meetings, we would encourage them to trust God in a new way that would lead to freedom, peace, and joy, as our lessons and our testimonies would encourage them to live by faith and experience the power that God could bring to their lives when they ask him for help, strength, and guidance. Time will tell whether or not they will accept the invitation, but I am proud of how our team sought to encourage them and support them in their decision to consider a different way to live. They seemed hungry for answers and expressed how they were hoping that things would click for them too. They are seeking a new way of life, and the Word of God encourages us that if we seek the Lord, we will find him. Deuteronomy 4:29 tells us, but from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. Jeremiah 29:13 agrees by telling us, and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. And finally, Jesus assures us in our seeking, our Heavenly Father in Matthew 7:7-11, where he encourages us to ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Uh, so be encouraged to seek the Lord and to ask him for help. Always the word of God indicates that if we seek him earnestly, we will find him. And when we ask him to help us to live the life he has for us, he will— we will receive much more than we could ever ask for or expect. God has blessed me in my walk because he called me out of the darkness and I followed. If you are hearing this message, let me assure you that he has called you too, to seek him, to find him, and to live. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on false prophets and teachers, and, uh, today's verses are from Jeremiah 6:16-17, where the word of God says, thus says the Lord: Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, listen to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not listen. Today's verses fall under the 14th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on false prophets and teachers. That 14th point is: God calls his people to repent and to listen to the faithful prophets. And, you know, today's verses show us the hard hearts of men as they refuse to listen to the good way that God invites us to walk into. This passage in Jeremiah shows us that we really must choose God's way for ourselves. We are free to go the way we choose, but we are not free to determine our final destination. The original sin of man has the desire to live independently from God at its root, and thus to be our God's. But if we believe we can determine our own faith, we really are deceived. While we can choose our way to live, one day we, one day we will die. And beyond that veil, God will be waiting for us to bring us to the place that our decisions have led to. If we believe his promises and choose faith in Jesus Christ, we live and discover the fruits of joy and peace, knowing that we found God's good way and rest for our souls. But if we will not listen, uh, and will not walk in God's way of life and salvation, we will reap the warnings of Jesus and be taken to the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So listen and walk in God's good way. Of faith in Jesus and live. As always, we invite all to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our 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 Alford, uh, Stephen F. Alford. And, um, today, um, Alford directs us to start reading Ephesians 1 as our morning reading. And, uh, from Ephesians 1, he shares a portion of verse 17, which says, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. And Stephen Alford writes, the apostle says that his great ambition was to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Peter closes his epistle with the words, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18. In Ephesians 1:17, Paul teaches that the only way to increase in the knowledge of him, Christ, is through the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Psalm 111:10. In other words, reverencing or having regard for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Spirit of Wisdom deepens this reverence into a real experience of God. Revelation— this is the communication to the believer of God's divine will by the operation of the Holy Spirit. And Alfred ends his devotion by praying, oh, that you would fill me with your Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, Lord. Amen, amen. And, uh, that's when we, when we, when we try things on our own strength and run into problems, we want to seek wisdom. And the word of God tells us to seek, you know, if we, if we need wisdom, that we are to seek the Lord according to— it's in the book of James. Um, uh, but here in Psalm 111:10, Alford points out that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. No, we don't have to be afraid of God, but we reverence. We reverence him, as he says, and have regard for the Lord. You know, that's the beginning of wisdom. When we consider God's ways, what would God have me do? How would God have me live? What does God tell me is right? You know, that's the spirit of wisdom that deepens our reverence for the Lord. Because if we, if we press in and we ask those questions, what would God have me do? We should be turning to the Word of God to see what's written there. And when we read the Word of God, we discover that this book is a little different, that it really does have spiritual wisdom in it. It is God-inspired, God-breathed. And as we have that reverence for the Lord, we'll press in and we'll seek the Lord through our reading or studying or prayers. And the communication, as Alfred writes, of the believers to the believer is the operation of the Holy Spirit. So the meaning, and the meaning of scripture will be illuminated by the Holy Spirit. So that's why we always put faith in Jesus Christ first before, well, study the Bible and try to figure it out. I mean, that's one way to do it. God will— if you seek him, you will find him. But sometimes we just hear the message of salvation that we can be forgiven of all our sins if we put our faith in Jesus, and that convicts our heart and leads us to faith, and that starts the journey of seeking. That's more typical than not. That's what sort of happened to me. I had considered the Bible before, before being quote-unquote saved. And it, you know, didn't mean a lot. Why? Because the Holy Spirit wasn't there to reveal, um, the truth, the spiritual truth in Scripture. That operation of the Holy Spirit in our lives when we have faith is that he allows us to seek the Lord at a deeper level. We get to know God more and God's will for us more when we, when we put our faith in Jesus and agree to live you know, as God's disciple or Jesus's disciple and learn from him. Um, when we learn from him, he'll guide us into new things. And, and that's why we point to fully surrendering to God, emptying ourselves for Christ to be filled by his Holy Spirit. Um, because when we think about God and reverence him, um, he'll show us the way. And, um, if he shows us the way, the implication is we have to do something about that. And, you know, it's one thing to know the truth. It's another— it's another thing to surrender to living according to God's way, um, to do something with what the word of God tells us. And that's what we invite you into, because a life in the spirit is, is, is good. It's your purpose in life is to find Jesus Christ and to follow him into whatever good works he has for you to do, um, That's, that's your will. That's God's will for your life, to follow Jesus. And as I stated last night, we started the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church. There is, uh, it's for Christian recovery and discipleship, heavy emphasis on discipleship here, um, as we, we seek to, you know, our higher power is Jesus Christ, and we want to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to, you know, live a new life., to overcome our hurts, habits, and hangups, but most importantly, to discover our purpose and meaning in life, um, through our faith in Jesus, you know. And, um, it was a good beginning, and I look forward to, uh, next week. But we'll be meeting from now until the end of the year on Wednesday evenings at Starpoint Church. And anyone in the Capital District, uh, of New York is invited to find us at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park, New York, at 6:30 on Wednesday. And, uh, you can go to the church website to register, uh, through the support group, uh, uh, link. Um, beyond that, if you're not local, um, and want to experience your freedom in Christ, we recommend highly the teachings of, uh, Freedom in Christ Ministries that make— they make available. Um, there are a whole offering of classes available, um, from Freedom in Christ this fall. Uh, one of those classes is going to be led by me. It's a men's class on Tuesday evenings, uh, at 6:30 Eastern Time. And they start on September 3rd, but the registration dates, uh, is locked out. I think it's August 26th. So if you're a man or woman, you can find classes to sign up for, um, at Freedom in Christ, uh, Ministries. It's ficm.org. We invite you to find that because that material will lead you to the Steps to Freedom in Christ. Not only is it good teaching, but it's a repentance process where you go to God in prayer to resolve the spiritual conflicts, spiritual and personal conflicts from your past, to be able to walk free, uh, from your past and into the life that God has for you. So, uh, we've been through the steps, we lead people through the steps, and, uh, we, we recommend them highly. Um, you can find those, those steps in, uh, Neil Anderson's original book, the, uh, The Bondage Breaker, if you want to look that up by yourself. But, um, sometimes it's better to, you know, seek, seek this freedom in Christ with a group, and that's why we point to the classes. Um, and that's it for today. And we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? Are you surrendered to God fully? Well, we're all a work in progress, and, uh, we encourage you to, you know, seek the Lord, to have reverence for him, and to, uh find the life that he has for you, because it's a good life. It is his good way, as the book of Jeremiah pointed out today. So we encourage you to keep on walking and talking with God. And when we talk with the Lord, whether it's conversationally, on our knees, um, or we use, um, words from a holy book, uh, like the Bible or a prayer, prayer guide, um, that's called prayer. So, um, we should pray for sure. Let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do for us, Lord. We thank you for the people who came last night to our, our support group meeting. We pray for them and their walk of faith. And also, the Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message or watching it on YouTube, um, that they'd be blessed as well, that you come alongside them, their prayer requests, their walk of faith. And guide them in the way they should go. And Lord, while you're at it today, as we go out into the world, we just pray for you to open our eyes to what you want us to see and lead us in the way we should go. It's all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we definitely need your help with that, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.