The Two Forms of Guilt and the Way to Freedom - Purity 1490

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, um, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Uh, today's photo of the autumn splendor painted on the forest beneath Adirondack mountain peaks comes to us from yours truly, as I captured the scene back on October 9th, 2021 while visiting Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, New York. Well, it's Wednesday and I am sharing this photo to visually represent our arrival at another midweek summit and to encourage us all to keep our eyes on the beauty of our lives in Christ as we go up and down those peaks and valleys of progress as we trudge our way through life on the path of Christian discipleship. Our walk with the Lord was never meant to be a drudgery, but when we step off the path or fall into sin continually, we can easily fall into the trap of shame and guilt and believe the lie that we aren't good enough, or that we will never be free, or we have to earn God's approval, or that freedom and peace is available for some Christians but not for us. I used to be trapped in, in the bondage of addiction to alcohol and sex, and my new life in Christ seemed, uh, you know, was actually a sad cycle of sin, confess, sin, confess, because I didn't think I could be free. And whatever efforts I made to stop sinning in these areas were full of disappointments because I was trying to clean myself up by myself alone, and that approach was doomed to failure because I wasn't utilizing the power of the Lord or the help that was available, available to me in the body of Christ. I also didn't fully understand who I was in Christ. I thought I was a no-good sinner at heart, and my continual failures seemed to prove it, or so I thought. Little did I know that was not true. But I had to learn the truth, accept it and God's forgiveness, and continually abide in His presence and call on His help to be set free. But God was patient and faithful. And when I finally understood that He could and would help me if I asked, my view of myself, God, and my whole life changed. When I surrendered to God's will for my life and decided to follow Him into a Christian recovery program at my church, I no longer had to live with guilt and shame, and he guided me to freedom, victory, and peace. You know, dealing with our guilt is a major issue in our walk of faith, and today's In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley speaks on the topic. So I'm sharing it on the blog today to show, to show us that there are two types of guilt and one way to overcome them. Dr. Charles Stanley writes: The Struggle with Guilt. Jesus completely paid the penalty for all our sins. We don't need to punish ourselves. Yesterday we saw that because of Jesus's sacrifice, we're free from guilt. And I'm sharing the, the, the link on the blog today if you want to read that devotional from yesterday. Um, and he continues to write, but at times we still feel ashamed. So let's look a little deeper. There are two types of guilt: biblical and false. The first originates with the violation of scripture. This is not a feeling, but a reality. We have sinned and should repent. The second, which involves continuing to feel guilty after confessing a sin, is not based in truth or supported by the Bible. God has forgiven us, so there's no need to linger in shame. People struggle with false guilt for many reasons. Legalistic teaching, for example, presents life as a series of rules that can never be followed perfectly. Self-reproach can also derive from verbal put-downs. Another cause is perfectionism. Expectations we're incapable of attaining can flood us with self-condemnation. Guilt leads us to doubt God's love and salvation, which paves the way for fear and insecurity. Dirty and leaves us unable to enjoy life. It can also open the door for physical and mental stress. The Heavenly Father wants his children to live free from guilt. If you experience shame, ask him to feel— to help you trace its cause. Then affirm these truths: you are special, made in God's image and redeemed by him, loved by the Creator of the universe, and forgiven. That was from Dr. Charles Stanley. And, uh, when we feel guilty, we need to know why. If we are living with sin in our lives, we should feel guilty. Christ died for— to set us free. And if we're stuck in sin, we need to repent and change our minds and hearts about how we are living and commit ourselves to doing things God's way. Dr. Michael Brown, when facing his food addiction, realized that my plan's not working. And it was only after that admission that he was able to surrender to the Lord's plan for health and healing. Brown was willing to do his part, and God was there for him to give him strength, comfort, and wisdom to do the rest. So, if you're doing things that you know are not good for you or blatantly go against God's word, confess your sin, seek help, and start doing things God's way. Of course, then there is the second form of guilt, illegitimate guilt or false guilt. This comes from condemnation, where we or the enemy convinces us that we are no good, evil, or inadequate to live a Christian life, or that we can't do it perfectly and thus won't be acceptable. This form of guilt exposes a problem with what we believe about God, ourselves, and how we are to live as Christians. Dr. Charles Stanley prescribes some good old-fashioned renewing of the mind by affirming the truth of who we are in Christ and who God is, a remedy that works. But if you suffer from the second form of guilt, you may think this means you have to try harder to get God's peace, and that's all wrong. This belief just causes stress and more condemnation. Uh, you are forgiven and free already, and you have to realize that you will mature and grow a whole lot quicker if you just accept that and rest in it. If you have put your faith in Jesus, your relationship with God is secure. By grace and through faith, you are his child, and nothing is going to change that. You know, God loves you, and our life in Christ is best experienced when we simply seek to know him more and love him right back. We don't have to earn our place in God's kingdom. We are already there. And to experience God's peace, we just need to live like it. Christ did the work for us, and we just have to follow him to experience the peace that we already have. The pathway to peace is laid before us. We just have to turn from the world's the world's lies and its false promises and decide to rest and walk in God's truth and presence. So take, take a deep breath. Inhale God's grace. Exhale your guilt and shame and give the Lord your thanks, love, and gratitude. Give thanks and praise to the one who takes away our guilt and leads us to peace, love, and joy. This morning's meditation verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on friendships. Today's verse is 1 Samuel 20:17, and, uh, the new— in the New American Standard Bible, and the word of God says, Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life. Today's verse is the first of two passages that fall under the eighth point of our Counseling Reference Guide resource section on friendships. And that eighth point is: Jonathan and David had an ideal friendship. Today's Bible verse tells us of the deep love of friendship that Jonathan had for David, so much so that he reinforced the commitment to their friendship with another vow. When our love for one another is strong, we aren't ashamed of dedicating ourselves to the relationship over and over again. Love grows when we know we can trust the other person to be there for us, and vowing and reaffirming our love for one another is a practice that builds intimacy when both parties agree. So let, let your loved ones know that they are loved by you and reaffirm your friendships or love relationships. By making it clear that you care and are committed to them. 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. Alford. And in Alford's devotional, uh, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture, and the chapter for today is Revelation 11, and he share is a portion, um, from verse 4 to start us off, where the word of God says, these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And Stephen Alford writes, this verse describes the two witnesses of verse 3. Their names are not disclosed, but many think of that one of them will be Elijah. It is interesting to study the significance of the two things in particular that are given to describe them. 2 lampstands. Like John the Baptist and believers today, they will be the lamps of the world, shining for God upon Earth. What a wonderful ministry to fulfill. 2 olive trees. This is a picture of the Holy Spirit who will indwell them to fill their lamps with oil. The power to shine, to shut heaven, and to smite the earth will be given to them by the Holy Spirit. And Alfred ends by praying, you are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. From Matthew 5:14 and 16, we say amen. Amen. And yes, we are, we are that lamp to shine a light for the world and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do our ministry, to teach people the truth and to show them that, you know, Jesus came to set the captives free. And when we believe and follow him, we experience his peace and his freedom. Uh, when we walk in the Spirit, we will not give into the lust of the flesh, and we'll experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. And, uh, you know, this is in— this points us to an engaged life with Christ where we're to do a little bit more than just show up at a church service every week, that we are to have a conversational relationship with the Lord. Where we seek to do his will and his will only. And so we always ask the question, um, you know, have you fully surrendered to God? No, I admitted yesterday some, uh, food, food addiction failure, uh, basically with some candy bar grabbing and, and devouring. And, uh, now I have, you know, there's guilt there because, uh, you know, I did, I did what I know was wrong. I know, you know, eating food isn't necessarily inherently wrong, But the spirit of addiction that is there, you know, definitely points that I'm seeking comfort or reward or something from a substance that I should be seeking from the Lord. And, and, and how do I know that's wrong? Because I feel like guilt, I feel guilty afterwards. God puts guilt in us for a reason, you know, to change us. And if it's, and if it's illegitimate, that's a matter of our relationship with the Lord where we think we're not good, or, you know, me, I know who I am in Christ, and I know that the Lord, you know, the Lord Jesus died for my food addiction too. He died for my alcohol and sex addiction, and he was able to free me of those things. And so it follows that he died for this, this sin too. And I believe it, and, you know, I'm faithful to follow the Lord and rest in his presence and receive his forgiveness and his power. We can walk into freedom. And what it might require, some renewing of the mind of how I think about food and my relationship to it, and making a commitment to not doing that anymore, and making myself accountable to other people perhaps, but certainly between me and the Lord. Like, Lord, I'm not doing this anymore, help me. Then, you know, he will. You know, that's, that's the point anyway. Um, and sometimes you ask him for help and it turns out that he, he's got, he's got you know, your freedom was given to you so you could help others. And in my case, that's definitely the case. Um, tonight we'll be hosting the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, um, you know, with a special presentation by the mullet champ himself, Scott Salvador. Tonight I asked Scott to, uh, say a few words, uh, during the introduction, um, so I'm looking forward to see what he comes up with. Um, And, you know, we're there for Christian recovery, but it's— I also, you know, put the point that it's for discipleship. We teach, we teach people to walk in the Spirit and to practice the spiritual disciplines of being a Christian, believe, you know, and understanding that we've been changed, and we're going to live according to who we are now in Christ. And that's the pathway that'll help you to overcome your hurts, habits, and hangups and to live in joy and peace. You know, basically is when we enter into who we are in Christ. And so if you're in Upstate New York and you want to experience this, we invite you to come out tonight, 6:30 PM, at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park and go find yourself your way to the K through third, third grade classroom, and you'll see us there. Um, of course, um, If you can't, uh, we're, we're, you know, we also offer online things. And the first thing we're doing is a group coaching event of the Grace Course. We're calling it Grace for the Holidays, an online teaching and support group for men. Uh, I made the decision to, to, to— I haven't really advertised it anywhere except for the podcast and in the class I'm teaching currently, but I'm going to send out material basically to people on my list. Um, to let them know that, um, come November 18th, we'll be doing Monday night, 6:30 PM online, uh, where we're going to walk through the Grace Course during the holiday season and to support one another and, um, you know, keep Christ in Christmas and, you know, experiencing God's grace, uh, you know, as we walk through the holiday season. So if you're a man and you want to check out the, the group, go to mtforchrist.com and go to the group teaching events page. Give me your information, sign up, and, uh, we'll be in contact with you to give you the resources that we need, uh, you'll need to go through the course. Um, and, and if, and if that time frame doesn't work for you, in the new year we'll be doing another Freedom in Christ course online for Freedom in Christ Ministries, uh, Tuesdays at 6:30 PM, um, beginning January 7th. Um, in 2025, the year of our Lord. Um, and you can go to ficm.org/ficmcourses, Freedom in Christ course, spring 2025, to register for that one. Um, so, and, and, and if you're not a man, and you— or if you're not available for those classes, we also believe that you can find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podclay podcast classes on YouTube. You'll find teachings on The Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and our own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course under our playlist page, along with many other playlists of Christian material that we believe, you know, can encourage you in your walk. So we offer all those resources because we've, we found our freedom in Christ and we want to keep it and walk further into it. And we want to share it with other people. So that's what we do all this for. And so we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? Have you made yourself available to the Holy Spirit? If so, we say keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we suggest you pray. We say to pray to the Lord for to reveal himself and to, you know, pray to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. That'll change a lot. Um, and we believe in the power of prayer, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the freedom you've given us and, you know, your continual encouragement to keep going and to keep following you further into, you know, who we are, who the people you made us to be, and the purpose you have for us in this life. Lord, our lives are so much better now that we found you and are following you. And, um, we thank you for revealing yourself to us and saving us. Um, well, we just pray for anyone who's reading or watching or listening today's message, that you come alongside them, their prayer requests, and their walk of faith, and help them too, Lord. Um, we're all in this together in the body of Christ, but we all need you. To help us. And we just want to represent your kingdom, and we're asking for your guidance, wisdom, and presence today to help us to do that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.