The Truth that Sets The Food Addict Free - Purity 1432

Recording in progress. Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Today's photo, uh, to see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, uh, or watch us on YouTube. Uh, today's— good morning— today's photo of green grass before the ruins of a man-made stronghold castle under pleasant blue skies comes to us from an unknown Facebook friend who shared shared this view of a presently unknown European, English, or Irish castle on social media back on August 22nd, 2023. If this vacation snapshot from last year is yours, give us a heads up and we will give— we will update the blog to name the place and give you the photo credit you so richly deserve. Let's see, now we move along. Well, it is Wednesday again, and I'm sharing today's photo of a man-made stronghold To encourage my friends to fight the good fight of an overcomer and to be bold and courageous in taking on your pesky hurts, habits, and hang-ups with God's help. And if you're local to the Capital District, uh, of Upstate New York, I invite you to walk besides me and others on the road to recovery and the path of Christian discipleship at the Celebrate Freedom, uh, support group at Starpoint Church later tonight. Yeah, anyway, later tonight. It was just over a year ago that I decided to take my food addiction, take on my food addiction in earnest by making myself accountable to my food plan and pursuing the lofty physical goal of obtaining a BMI weight that would no longer classify me as obese. I am happy to say that after a year I have managed to achieve and maintain that goal, but I am motivated to recommit myself to diligently pursue the better physical health that lies on the other side of 200 pounds, a goal that I had achieved briefly earlier this year, but that has slipped through my grasp as I have relented and compromised my food plan— well, compromised food plan sanity over and over again with various rationalizations since last January. To know what is right and to not do it is sin, according to James 4:17. So you could say, I've been, uh, being stuck. I have been, I've been stuck in a sin-confess-sin-confess cycle over the last 7 months as I have watched my weight yo-yo up and down, as I have tried— I would quote unquote, try hard, and then quote unquote, give myself a break by quote unquote, rewarding myself with quote unquote, occasional quote unquote, cheat days and quote unquote, celebratory food binges. That last statement has so many air quotes in it because it is positively packed with lies, half-truths, and compromise that I would that I found it difficult to say, uh, to know better and to not do better, to know what's right mentally and to not— and to do different physically. This lies at the heart of some of Dr. Neil Anderson's teaching in his book Victory Over the Darkness, where he writes, understanding your identity in Christ is essential for living the Christian life. People cannot consistently behave in ways that are inconsistent with the way they perceive themselves. You don't change yourself by perception. You change your perception of yourself by believing the truth. If you pursue yourself, well, if you perceive yourself wrongly, you will live wrongly because what you are believing is not true. If you think you are a no good bum, you will probably live like a no good bum. If, however, you see yourself as a child of God who is spiritually alive in Christ, you will begin to live accordingly. Next to a knowledge of God, a knowledge of who you are is by far the most important truth you can possess. The major strategy of Satan is to distort the character of God and the truth of who we are. He can't change God, and he can't do anything to change our identity and position in Christ. If, however, he can get us to believe a lie, we will live as though our identity in Christ isn't true. You know, in the case of the Christian food addict, uh, if you think of yourself as a food addict, you will behave as a food addict. You will think that you are a no-good bum when it comes to being able to control what you eat, and you will act like a no-good bum food-wise. You'll believe the lie that cheat days are okay. I don't want to lose weight. I am fat and happy. I need, I need my fattening comfort food of choice. I have no self-control. They make me eat. They sabotage me, et cetera, et cetera. While all of these excuses can seem true, they are all based on the lie that you are powerless to do what is right. You are not free in Christ, when in fact, the moment you put your faith in Christ, you have been set free. For Jesus said in John 8:31-32, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And in John 8:34-36, he said, most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin as a slave of sin, and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Jesus indicates that if we abide in the truth of what he says about us, his word, we will know the truth and we will be free. But if we commit sin, we become slaves to sin. Doing the wrong thing. In food terms, this is forsaking the wisdom of good nutrition for junk food and ignoring proper portion sizes. We know what is right but don't do it. We quote unquote miss the mark. We sin. But Jesus indicates that abiding in his truth will help us to say no to sin and to be free indeed. Abiding in God's truth and living according to it could be called walking in the Spirit. And Galatians 5:22-23 describes what fruit grows when we live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25 says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. If we live according to our faith, we rely on God's strength to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit as we make the daily decision to crucify the flesh and its passions by believing the truth of the new life we have in Christ. If we don't waver in how we see ourselves as God's children who have been set free and stay in God's presence through spiritual disciplines and abiding in his ways, we can experience the fruit of patience and self-control that we need to maintain our victory and freedom. While the last 7 months don't point to great progress for my health goals, they are a testimony of diligence as I haven't I haven't given up my faith or my fight to do what's right as a steward to my body. And now it is time to keep on believing and relying on God's strength and guidance to get me to believe in my heart of hearts what I know in my head. Hard things are easier with Christ. And so I am again declaring that I'm not giving in to the flesh and will seek God's renewing of my mind to make a way where there doesn't seem to be a way and to cause the impossible to continue to happen in my life. God has set me free from so much already, and I believe that he will continue to help me as long as I keep walking and talking with him. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. Uh, this morning's meditation verses come from the section on forgiveness of sins. And today's passage is Luke 7:47-50, where Jesus says, therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. And those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Today's verses fall under the 10th— well, the 11th point of the Our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the forgiveness of sins. And that 11th point is Jesus forgave the penitent woman. Today's verses remind us, are a reminder of the grace of God and the goodness of Jesus to free us from our sins. When we bow down to worship him as Lord. This scene in the Gospels is scandalous. This woman, a known sinner, should have stayed away from anyone holy, but something in her caused her to recognize that Jesus was worthy of worship and adoration. She scandalously bowed down and washed Jesus' feet with her tears and hair. She is so overcome in the presence of Jesus she can't even speak. She just seeks to serve Jesus in the small way she can because he is worthy. She doesn't even ask for forgiveness. She just worships him as God. And because she puts her faith in him, he blesses her with forgiveness. In a moment, she is forgiven and made new because she worshiped Jesus. So let's remember that we too were no good sinners, and it is only because God revealed the truth of our sin— and our need for a Savior, that we have been saved. And let's also remember to worship Jesus, for he alone is worthy. As always, we encourage everyone 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 F. Allpert.. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is 1 Timothy 1, and from 1 Timothy 1, he shares a portion of verse 12, which says, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me. And Stephen Alford writes, what a source of encouragement Paul found in this verse. Though before he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurer, injurious. Now he is a faithful apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God. The enabling power and grace of the Lord is one of the most precious gifts of God to the minister of the gospel. For unless we are enabled by the Lord, preaching, teaching, or personal soul winning is hopeless. When the Lord Jesus called his disciples, he said, follow me. And I will make you, enable you to become fishers of men. Mark 1:17. This enabling grace, which abounded exceedingly toward Paul, consists of faith on one hand and love on the other. These two represent life and power. And Stephen Alford ends by praying, Anoint me, O Lord, with your enabling grace that I may share your word with others. Amen. Amen. And, um, you know, Stephen Alford talks about the enabling grace of God to help us to serve the kingdom by, you know, winning people to Christ. But as we've stated, uh, before that, um, this enabling grace empowers us for sanctification as well. You know, we can't do it without God's power, and it has to be a combination of you know, truth and love. Um, you know, we can see the truth of what was right to do, but it's the love of God that working through us to accept our identity in Christ and to seek to please the Lord by sanctifying our lives, to becoming more conformed to the image of Christ, that would drive us to repentance and empower us for, for repentance and to change. And it's just a matter of accepting the truth that, you know, some things aren't good for me. Um, Alexis, stop that. And thank God I'm on vacation because that's the alarm to leave, but we'll wrap it up. Um, so, um, yeah, so let's, let's be empowered and move forward tonight. Uh, we asked the question this morning, have you fully surrendered to God? Um, you know, when you do that, you'll change the way you live your life. Even after you make some progress, you'll continue on the path of Christian discipleship to enter into what the Lord has for you personally. And, you know, as your per— whatever your purpose is for, uh, in Christ. Um, God's called me to repentance, to be a good steward of my body. I've seen loved ones suffer under the weight of their own bodies and their poor choices. And, you know, The Holy Spirit's convicted me not to follow in their example, to, you know, try to be as healthy physically so I can do, um, do the work, the good works that God's prepared for me. If I'm laid up because I can't move, um, I'm not going to be as effective for the kingdom as if I can move. So we'll move. And God's moved me to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which we invite you to this evening, uh, at 6:30 PM at Starpoint Church. Be there, Clifton Park, New York. If you'd like to register, go to Starpoint Church's website to register for the group under support groups. And we'll talk about walking in the— walking in the spirit and crucifying the flesh and getting over those hurts, habits, and hang-ups through the power of our faith and the power of the Holy Spirit in us this evening. So we hope to see some people there. And we also, if you can You know, if you're not local, um, the Freedom in Christ Ministries has online discipleship classes. Um, I just had an opening made last night, I believe, for my class. Um, so you might be able to get in, uh, which begins on September 3rd. You can register now, or try to, uh, and there's other courses available. So you'll have to see if you're available or the course is available, but there's different offerings@ficm.org. And guess what? Even if the class isn't available, the material is, and you can purchase these things, um, you know, the participant's guide, the Steps to Freedom in Christ. You can purchase them from the bookstore at ficm.org. And, um, quite frankly, we have these teachings on our webs— on our YouTube channel, uh, For Freedom in Christ and Victory Over the Darkness and The Bondage Breaker and other playlists So if you, you know, go, oh well, I missed the boat, you can do a self-study through listening to our podcasts, teachings of these classes, and doing the material. Um, you'll be built up, and then if you'd like, you can contact me as a Christian life coach to lead you through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, and you can figure it out. Um, so there's that. There's always hope when there's, uh, when you're seeking freedom. In Christ. Well, we ask the question: are you empty for Christ too? If so, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, seek, seek the Lord and you will find him, and he'll lead you in the way you should go. And, um, that's what he does. He saves us for a reason. He saves us to empower us to serve the kingdom and then go and make disciples. So Um, let's pray. 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 this vacation we're on, but we thank you for the continual work of ministry that you've given us to do through our life coaching practice and through the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church and the Freedom in Christ Ministries classes that you allow us to teach. Um, well, we're humbled that we get to share this freedom message, and we thank you for that. Lord, we also pray for anyone who's reading or watching or listening to this, uh, this message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, their walk of faith. Lord, because we all need your help when we want to follow you into the life you have for us. We need your help and we need your strength. We need your forgiveness and We're asking for it today. So Lord, lead us in the way we should go. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see, um, because we all need your help and we all want to represent you the best we can. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.