Wanting to Change & Genuine Repentance Purity 1798

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Good morning. Today's photo of a cloud touching down on an Adirondack highway comes to us from yours truly as I capture this heavenly scene while speeding my way to the 10:00 AM Starpoint Church service yesterday morning. Well, it's Monday, and I am praying for the Lord to bring a little heaven to earth in my life, as a fleshly camp weekend of overeating has me petitioning the Holy Spirit for genuine repentance. I've been convicted by the Lord to be a good steward of the body he has given me, and I would have to say that I failed miserably over the weekend, um, in doing that, as I allowed myself to fall into temptation, uh, to the deadly sin of gluttony. I healthy food options available, but I ate too much of those, and I ate lots of sugary things that I know are unwise, and now I'm looking to go back to sanity. I know all too well the difference between wanting to change and genuine repentance. Anybody can want to change, but unless we actually change the way we think and the way we behave, we will be destined to follow the same old destructive or unwise patterns of thoughts and behaviors over and over again. In order to break a habit, one has to commit to changing their behavior for an extended period of time. Some say the average length is 66 days to break a habit, to allow our efforts and neuroplasticity to change the flow of our natural behaviors. Of course, the Christian has the benefit of the Holy Spirit to help them, to help to lead them into genuine repentance, but many in the body of Christ don't utilize his help. Speaking of genuine repentance, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion from yesterday spoke about genuine repentance, and I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to seek the repentance that comes from the Lord. Dr. Charles Stanley writes, genuine repentance— God knows we won't live perfectly, but he always helps those who surrender their will to him. And he references 2 Corinthians 7: 8 through 10, and then continues to write, because we desire to be more like Jesus, we make resolutions, ask him to help us, and try to behave differently. Yet despite our best efforts to do things God's way, we sometimes slide back into old habits. Overcoming sinful attitudes and behavior starts with genuine repentance, which includes conviction, The Holy Spirit will reveal our areas of sin and convict us of wrongdoing. Through Scripture, he'll show us God's standard and what needs to change. Contrition: The next step, grieving over our iniquity, is followed by confession to the Lord. Genuine sorrow arises from the knowledge that we've sinned against God. True contrition will lead us to humble confession. And then finally, commitment. Real repentance is complete when we wholeheartedly pledge to turn from our old ways and move toward righteousness. God knows we won't live perfectly, but he looks for a surrendered heart that diligently seeks to obey him. Paul used strong language when telling us to turn from iniquity, put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature, in Colossians 3:5. What sin are you struggling to overcome? Have you genuinely repented, committing to turn from it permanently? Let the Holy Spirit empower you to change. I say— and that was from Dr. Charles Stanley— and I say amen. The 3 C's of repentance, oh yes, that's how it's done. Uh, while we should, you know, conviction, contrition, and commitment, uh, while we should understand We understand that the Holy Spirit will drive us to repentance. We still have to do our part to be free. As we come into the kingdom and grow as Christians, the Holy Spirit will convict our hearts about what areas of our lives need to change. Before coming to Christ, we get used to our sin and may not even see it as wrong. In the, in the world, we can justify just about anything, but God's word and the Holy Spirit will reveal to us what is wrong and unfitting for our new lives in Christ. After our hearts are convicted, we have to acknowledge that we not, uh, that we not only understand that our behaviors are off, behaviors are wrong, but we have to confess that we sin against God through them and that we are committed to change. The Holy Spirit will drive this process, but if we don't actively assume our responsibility and ask for God's help to turn from our sin, we will remain in a sin-confessed cycle. We have to rely on the Lord's strength and wisdom when we repent in full surrender. When we follow the Lord's convictions with contrition and commitment, the Lord will help us to experience his power to set us free. So if you are feeling convicted about something that needs to go, like I am, choose to repent and follow the Lord's way to freedom, peace, and joy. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crewe. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on persecution, and today's verse is 1 John 3:1, which says, see what God— see what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Today's verse is the third of three passages of scriptures that fall under the first point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on persecution, and that first point is: Why do people persecute Christians even when they are doing good? Today's Bible verses give us the good news of God's love for us and the fact that when we put our faith in Jesus, we become his children. That is what we are when we become Jesus's disciples, God's kids. But just because we become co-heirs with Christ in God's royal family doesn't mean that people will treat us accordingly. Because most of the world is spiritually blind or under the influence— and under the influence of the spiritual forces of darkness, they don't know us as God's children because they don't know the Lord., and because they don't know the Lord, we should expect to be persecuted like the people who didn't know Jesus as the Messiah. So hold on to the good news that you are God's beloved children, but be prepared to meet hostility with peace, because if the world couldn't see that Jesus was the Son of God and God the Son, it's unlikely that they will see us as God's children. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. And today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional. We're on day 297, where Adams shares a portion of Acts 8:4, which says, "As a result, those who were scattered abroad went everywhere announcing." And J.E. Adams writes, the Lord scattered the ingrown church by persecution so that his missionary program would proceed forward by moving its members out beyond Jerusalem. So those who were scattered like seed, sown like seed, carried the gospel with them wherever they went. Thus the message spread. It is interesting that everyone went except the apostles, who remained for a time in Jerusalem. This shows that much of the early growth of the church was the result of individual man-in-the-pew witnesses. Principally, this is still how Christianity is spread. You might describe what happened here as everyone evangelizing everywhere. This, that is a succinct formula for church growth of the right sort. The tragedy is that God so often has to send persecution to move Christians to accomplish his work. It's much better when we obey and don't have to be prodded by him to do it. Are we due for persecution in America? Amen. That's a big question, and I say amen. I mean, the death of Charlie Kirk would say that the persecution has come, that, you know, someone who spoke out about truth and life in Christ was gunned down. You know, we're socially rejected as it is, so the persecution is here already. Will it increase according to the word of God? I believe it will. You know, so we have to be those Christians that are, you know, everyone evangelizing everywhere. That's what we need to do, is share the good news that you can become children of God by putting your faith in Jesus. You can become forgiven. And set free. And you can have the power of genuine repentance when you put your faith in Jesus. That is why we always ask the question, are you— have you fully surrendered to God? And what does that mean? That just means you're trying to live a life of repentance, um, and you're turning away from the ways of the world to the ways of God. And, um, we hope you're on that path. Uh, we're trying our best, uh, to be perfect as Christ was perfect in all areas of life, but we're still human. I'm still human and I make mistakes. But the good news is we can always go to the Lord, ask for forgiveness, and ask him to empower us with his repentance. That's what we do. And that's part of my, part of my overall purpose in life. And one place I make that purpose clear is at the Celebrate Freedom support group, which you could say is, it is a Christian recovery and discipleship support group, but you could say it's a repentance support group, quite frankly, because people are changing, to change from how they used to live, to change to how they should live according to what the Word of God says, to become the people that God created them to be. If you'd like, you can join our group. We meet on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM at Star Point Church in the K-3rd grade classroom., and we welcome you with open arms. Anyway, speaking of Celebrate Freedom, did you know I wrote two books with Celebrate Freedom in the title? I did. First one, Celebrate Freedom: Seven Steps of Discipleship. That's my master's thesis basically on Christian recovery and my belief that discipleship principles should be inserted into the 12-step model to help people to get set free, and those 7 steps or 7 lessons I created to encourage people, and those 7 lessons are contained in the Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course Leader's Guide, and both are available at amazon.com. Beyond that, if you didn't want to just read a book written by me and wanted to, you know, come alongside and, you know, we could walk together in a discipleship course, there's that opportunity available. Starting next week on Tuesday, November 4th, we begin the Grace Course. Uh, it's written by Steve Gloss and the People of Freedom in Christ Ministries, and we'll be doing the 8 weeks from November 4th to December 23rd, um, to encourage people to grow in their faith. And, um, we have people signed up and there's room for more. So if you'd like, you can sign up at mtforchrist.com group coaching events page. And, uh, yeah, join us. Beyond that, if you can't make the course, don't want to read my books, you Well, you can still glean from the podcast. Um, we've done bunches, bunches. We do a semi-daily message as it is, and, um, we also have done messages in the past that you can check out by checking out our playlist either on mtforchrist.com or our YouTube channel, M.t. for Christ 247. Um, beyond that, uh, if you appreciate what we're trying to do and encouraging people in their Christian recovery and discipleship and want to support our ministry, you can go to mtforchrist.com, our donations page, and give today. We greatly appreciate it. Beyond that, we end every little message with the question, "Are you empty for Christ too?" And what does that mean? Well, it just means, are you trying to empty yourself of the things of the world and be filled with the things of God and the Holy Spirit? If the answer to that question is yes, we say, "Awesome! Keep on walking and talking with God." If not, we encourage you to seek the Lord and to pray, because we know that prayer works, 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 for your mercy, your forgiveness, your grace, uh, because we need it. You know, we get caught up in the world and caught up in what other people do, and we get caught up in our own sinful desires, Lord, and sometimes we don't really say no. And, uh, we need help. Um, you know, I don't want to be this way anymore. I want to live free and, and not turn back, and I need your help with that, Lord. So I'm praying today to ask you for that help. And Lord, while you're at it, we're also praying for anyone reading, listening, or watching this message, Lord, that you come alongside them, their prayer request, because they need your help too. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.