The Teacher Becomes the Student – The Importance of Community Purity 947

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 the late afternoon sun framed between utility lines from the vantage point of Third Street Extension in Albany, New York comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene at quitting time yesterday afternoon. After a day of working through some After some more January rain and temperatures just above freezing, the sun came out as if a sign from God himself to welcome me to the weekend and to fill me with joy at the possibilities of the future. Yes, my friends, it is the weekend, and it is my prayer that anyone hearing or reading this message will find moments of rest and rejoicing as we journey through the second-to-last weekend of the first month of 2023. Yeah, don't blink because in 2 weeks we will be 4 days into February. You have to excuse my looking ahead on the calendar, but when you are walking and talking with God on the path of Christian discipleship, as much as we, uh, you are enjoying each passing moment in the Lord's presence, uh, your vision is forward-looking. And the question that we continually ask is, what's next, Lord? While we may gain wisdom from examining our past or rejoice over previous triumphs to drive us ahead, When we are following the Lord, we can't help but wonder where we are going. My immediate future last night was a good one as I headed up to my countryside home in Easton to be reunited with my wife, Tammy Lynn, but it didn't take long before I asked her, "What's next?" by inquiring what plans we had for over the— what our plans for the weekend would be. As of this morning, other than church on Sunday, we don't really have plans to go anywhere or do anything. This, of course, leaves the door open for spontaneity, so I guess we will see where the day takes us. Uh, Thursday night I began Deeper Walk International School of Prayer Ministries certification program, and we'll have to review this week's reading assignments and compose some thoughts on what I think about it. So even though it's the weekend and we have no plans per se, in order to avoid stress later this week, I'm making the decision to stay ahead of the game by using some of my leisure time to meet the responsibilities of this program. The best way to plan for the future is to take care of what you have to do today. So I have already read some of the material last night, and I plan to finish up the rest and be ready to write prayerfully, possibly today or by tomorrow evening. I really need to stay ahead of the game on my studies with Deeper Walk because I will be leading another Freedom in Christ course online starting January 31st. And I— and my schedule should be pretty full as I learn and am trained with Deeper Walk and as I encourage others to learn who they are in Christ and assist them and experience their freedom in Christ. The teacher has become the student, and I'm really excited to see how the next several weeks develop because of all the new people and things that these courses will bring into my life. With these two courses, I will be entering into two new communities that are specifically designed to support and encourage one another as we learn and grow together. As much as traveling alone— as much as traveling along the path of Christian discipleship can be a solitary journey, in truth, being a Christian was never intended to be about going it alone. Christians are never alone, of course, because of the presence of the Lord in our lives, but we are supposed to follow Christ's second commandment to love others as ourselves. That requires people. So if you just happen to be one of those Lone Ranger Christians who are not attending a local church, I really must encourage you to do so. While I can understand the awkwardness, social anxiety, and fears that can be involved with going into a new church or returning to your old church, I really must encourage you to join the body of Christ somewhere on a regular basis because so much of our maturity as Christians is formed from our interactions with the faith community. While I stress the importance of the individual's daily spiritual practice and seeking the Lord continually, some things have to be learned and experienced with our interactions in the faith community. Learning from example, service, Forgiveness and patience are just some of the things that really require our exposure to other people. So I encourage everyone who hears this message to find a church where you can attend and get involved with the work of the body of Christ, because there are some things we can only learn in community. When Christians come together to support one another in their faith walk, it can be a beautiful thing. So seek it. My canine friend Harley is whining as I write this, so I'm going to cut this short today. We also have to serve our pets, apparently. Anyway, keep walking and talking with God, get connected with the community of Bible-believing Christians, and see where the future takes you by always asking the Lord, "What's next?" Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Ephesians 2:10, and it says, for we are God's masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he prepared for us long ago. Today's verse reminds us that we are God's piece of work, and he has created us new in Christ to do the good things that he has planned for us long ago. We are God's masterpiece. His love makes us perfectly accepted, secure, and significant. And although we are a work in progress, we should continually remind ourselves that Christ has made us complete. I suggest using Dr. Neil Anderson's Who I Am in Christ list that is based on scripture to help you to renew your mind and to fully know and accept your identity in Christ. With that said, I also want to recommend some balance to what could turn into a self-adoration practice by reminding all of us of our purpose in Christ, to do the good works that he has prepared for us that we are to walk into. I knew a Christian who often built himself up with the thought that God dances over me. This idea of God busting a move over us is drawn from a single verse from the rather obscure Old Testament prophet Zephaniah. The dancing verse, Zephaniah 3:17 in the NLT, says, For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. It's a great verse. Um, according to Bible scholars, quote-unquote scholars, they point out that the rejoice over you literally means dance, skip, leap, or spin around in joy. And they boldly proclaim that God dances with shouts of joy over us. Yeah, we are awesome. God is dancing a jig over us. Do not get me wrong, Christians need to know that the love— the Lord loves them and that He does rejoice over us. Lessons like this can help our hearts and minds to accept something that does not come naturally. To have an experiential knowledge of the Lord's love and acceptance. Teaching like this can really help us. However, the thing we can— that can really empower our faith walk and assure us of our place in God's kingdom is living out our identity in Christ by seeking and accomplishing our purpose in Christ. In other words, we shouldn't just be believing the good news about who we are in Christ, we should be walking in our identity by doing what our Father calls us to do, to be doers of the word and not hearers only. So yes, we are God's masterpieces, but let's not dwell on that to the exclusion of seeking out our purpose for His kingdom. God has things for us to do and people for us to meet as He has called us to go out to make disciples. When we do that, we will know that, that God rejoices over us because we will be giving him glory as we become alive in our purpose of showing and sharing his love with the world around us. 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 A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God. And right now we're in chapter 4, and today we will be concluding the section on the sovereignty of God the Son in salvation. So if you want to read the last few paragraphs of that section from this chapter, uh, go to mtforchrist.org and see what A.W. Pink had to say about that. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship. Always ask the question, what's next, Lord? And we seek the follow it. So, uh, yeah, um, we are to walk into the good works God has prepared for us, but we need to know who we are in Christ as well. So if you needed that instruction of who you are in Christ, we provide, um, teachings, uh, on our podcast and our YouTube channel from Dr. Neil Anderson's Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ course. So if you wanted to get built up in your faith to, to know who you are in Christ and to possibly experience your freedom in Christ, we recommend you to check out those courses that we taught at our local church back in 2021. As always, we also, uh, we also encourage Bible study. We provide a Bible study of sorts, a topical study each week with Arthur and Suzanne Sincotti, and that's available on our podcast in YouTube channel as well, along with, uh, our, our, uh, PowerPoint presentation, rich teaching on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship. If you wanted to check that out, that's available as well. We provide all these resources because we've discovered, uh, the new life in Christ, and we've been transformed by it, and we've experienced our freedom over many things and are walking in the abundant life that God has for us. And we're going to keep walking. So as I keep walking with Christ, I'm going to tell as many people as I can about the rich journey and adventure that the Lord has for you that, you know, not for nothing, can carry you through even the dark times and the trials. We can have peace and we can have joy regardless of the circumstances when we're grounded in who our identity in Christ and doing what he would have us do. So we encourage that. It is the weekend, so we're going to wrap it up as the dog— if you didn't hear it, the dog is actually whining now. He was whining when I was writing, and now he's whining again because he hears me and he wants to go for a walk. So we're going to let that We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna go serve that dog. Um, but first we're gonna pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you so much for safely delivering me to my countryside home, um, where I have— can be with my wife and walk the dog. Um, Lord, we just thank you so much for all you've done for us, Lord, and we thank you for your spirit within us that encourages us to keep going and keep seeking you. Um, Lord, we pray for everyone who might be listening or, or reading this message today, Lord, that you— they'd be blessed, um, that you would come alongside them in their prayer request and that you would empower them for their walk. Lord, even though we don't have plans today, we're, we're open and available for you to work in our lives. So we just ask for you to go for before us today and open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead our path in those into those good works that you would have us do. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.