What about Results? - Answering the Call - Purity 789

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 a water pathway that runs through a city to distant mountains and a sky painted by the sun comes to us from a friend who has taken a year to, to travel throughout, through various parts of the world to share the gospel of Jesus Christ along the way. Today's photo documents this friend's visit to the city of Prizren, which is the second most populous city and municipality of Kosovo and is located on the banks of the Prizren River between the foothills of the Šhar Mountains in southern Kosovo. I just love how my friend's love for the Lord and willingness to follow his call has set them on a journey where they will spend an entire year of their lives seeing distant lands and cultures with the sole intention to represent God's kingdom and share the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only has my friend chosen to leave all that was familiar to them behind for a year, but they also chose to trust the Lord by doing it alone. Now, they are part of a team, but they didn't insist that someone go with them to hold their hand. They also trusted the Lord to provide the funds for this traveling mission trip, and the Lord was faithful, and now what they dreamed about is coming true. They are living it. Well, it's Thursday again, and I share this water pathway to the mountains to encourage my friends to either keep going or to get on the path of Christian discipleship, which is my poetic way of choosing to— of saying that choosing to live out your Christian faith every day. Instead of just believing or agreeing with certain ideas about faith, the true value of our lives in Christ is realized when we live according to what God says about us, seek to know Him more, and surrender to His will for our lives by pursuing our Kingdom purpose. Our faith isn't a list of dos and don'ts, a set of rules to follow. Our faith is a mission to do the good works that God has prepared for us to do, to show and share his love and to make disciples. So tonight, although I haven't been called to a year-long mission trip around the world— not yet anyway— I am answering the call the Lord was leading me to and will be hosting another session of the Freedom in Christ Ministries The Grace Course on Zoom. And how do we know we are doing the right thing? How do we know that we are called Or how do we know that what we are called to is of God? How do we know we are fulfilling our purpose in Christ? Unfortunately, unless the Lord shows up with signs and wonders, um, or speaks from heaven, there is no easy way to know what, what you are preparing to do is really what God wants you to do. As I thought about this question, the first thing that came to mind is that we can know that whether or not what we do is God's purpose for us by the results that we get. It makes sense. Like my friend who is on their extended mission, uh, the mere fact, uh, that they were able to fund their trip could be seen as a huge indicator that this is the Lord's will for their life. We could reckon that the Lord is sovereign and that if he didn't want my friend to go on this trip, the money wouldn't have come or something else would have prevented it. Likewise, if you start a church or ministry and a bunch of people show up, the large crowds could be seen as a huge indicator that you are following the Lord and fulfilling your purpose, and the Lord is blessing your faithfulness. Results, thus, could be a good indicator of how to gauge whether or not we are in the Lord's will. Of course, the problem is that you really have to act on faith because you won't see see the results until you do act. Um, plus, uh, the results that we are hoping for— big crowds perhaps— we do desire to reach the nations, right? Uh, those things might not be what God has in mind. And just because something isn't successful doesn't mean that we were outside of God's will. God can also use our failures or struggles to produce the fruit of developing our Christian character, our trust in Him alone, and our patience and perseverance. If everything we did was blessed by God, we might take, take the Lord for granted and think that we are wise and we know the perfect will of God and are making all the right rules, uh, right moves, and we don't need to grow. And because none of us is Jesus Christ, I know None of us are perfect in that we will go through seasons where our faith will be tested and we will be called to repent and surrender more of ourselves to God's ways instead of just doing things like we always have. I have a friend who was called to leave his home in home state of Arizona to come to Poughkeepsie, uh, to start up church, and he was faithful to pursue it. But despite his faithfulness and efforts to build a church there, he wasn't successful. He had small measures of success, but ultimately the church didn't take off. So I guess he was outside of God's will, right? But the thing is, he was faithful to the call. And although the church didn't take off, because he had moved to New York, he was in the right place at the right time when a church nearby, uh, in a nearby area, uh, needed an associate pastor. He now is on staff as part of that church where he preaches and sometimes leads worship. He went from being virtually all alone to being surrounded by a vibrant church community. Good story, right? True story. But the thing is that it took years with a capital Y for it to come to pass. But this friend remained faithful, and I am sure he would testify that the Lord had been with him every step of the way, in the lean years and now that he has "arrived." This is the journey of our faith. We go to where we believe the Lord calls us. We don't worry about the results. We leave those up to him. But we, but we remain in constant contact with him to lead us as we go and do the best we can to share his truth and his love and remain faithful in seeking his purpose. Purposes for us. So don't worry about whether or not you are doing it right. Just abide in the Lord's presence, communicating with Him in, in prayer, Bible study, and asking Him for strength and guidance. As you— and you can be assured that He is with you regardless of the circumstances and regardless of the results. As long as our desire is to remain true to God's Word and glorify Jesus and do good things in His name out of love for Him, not out of obligation or in hopes of gaining something, we can be certain that we won't go too far off course because God will undoubtedly work all things together for good because we love Him and are answering the call to pursue His purpose for us. Romans 1:16-17 say, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Christ." For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For in it the gospel of the righteousness of God is revealed. The righteousness of God is Jesus. He is revealed from faith to faith. That means we grow, we progress from faith to faith, we mature and know Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit more in our hearts, in our minds, and in our experience. This is our call. Through our faith in Jesus, we have been justified. We are thus just, and we shall live by faith. That describes the fact that we live forever We are saved by our faith, and it describes how we are to live by faith, by believing what the Word of God says and by trying to mold our lives to follow it. When we do this, we just happen to get to know God more, from faith to faith. This is the cycle of life in the Spirit. So keep walking and talking with God and keep growing. To go. Keep growing, keep growing as you go from faith to faith. Uh, today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 2 Peter 1:3, and it says, as his divine power has given us— given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. In today's verse, we are encouraged to discover that we have already been given all, all that, all, all that pertains to life and godliness because we know Jesus who called us by glory and virtue. Now, one thing I have come to understand is that our faith lies in the heart of Mm, well, let's see. One thing I have come to understand in our faith lies in the heart of today's verse. We already got it. When we put our faith in Christ as Lord and Savior, we receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who makes us spiritually alive, giving us eternal life and the power over sin. God has given, past tense. We already have it. All things, we have all things that pertain to life, as in we will never die or face God's wrath in hell. We will instead live with him for all eternity. Most of us understand that part of the gospel. We will go to heaven someday, but we also receive all things that pertain to godliness. We can live a righteous life where we are no longer in a master-slave relationship with sin. When we trust in who we are in Christ and ask the Lord for guidance and strength to repent of our former ways of living, we can succeed because we have already been given a portion of God's divine power that pertains to life and godliness. So go to the Lord, thank him for your sa— for his salvation from sin and death, uh, believe you received it. And walk with the Lord in faith to receive the guidance and strength for you to live out the righteous life that God has already provided you with. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights of prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters, sisters in Christ, with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness Uh, today's section concludes chapter 8 of his book, and it's entitled Secure and Protected. As the Who I Am in Christ list points out, we are secure in Christ. And so I would imagine what Clinton Arnold writes today— well, wrote, and that is being presented today— lies in, lies in truth of who we are in Christ and the fact that we are secure and protected. And that's it. And that's how we have peace as Christians. We know that no matter what happens, we are secure and protected in Christ. We, we might lose our lives on this, on this planet, but we'll never be separated from the love of the Lord. We will We will go on and live with him in eternity. And while we're here, we should enjoy his presence and power in our lives by living according to our faith. The just shall live by faith. So let's do that, you know. And, you know, that's, that's why we share this podcast, this blog, is to encourage people that you can do that. You can do this. You got this. You know, why? Because the Lord has us. You know, you can do this because the Lord has you. You know, it reminds me of the scene in Superman where, you know, Lois Lane in the Superman movie with Christopher Reeve's Lois Lane falls from a building and Superman comes along and flies up and saves her and says something to the effect of, "Don't worry, I've got you." And to which Lois Lane comically says, "Um, you got me, but who's got you?" Well, you know, the Lord has us. You know, we don't have each other. The Lord has us all, and he can lift us up, and he saves us, and he lifts us up to a new life. And, you know, our simple, you know, answering the call is really, I would say, on a daily basis would be just to connect with the the Lord in some way by reading his word, by praying, by talking to him about your experience as you go through life. And, you know, and part of that conversation might include, Lord, what would you have me do? What should I do? There are lots of opportunities to do good works, and the Lord wouldn't be ashamed of you stepping out in faith and doing something. And it doesn't necessarily have to be within the four walls of your church. And if you don't have a church, you might consider going into the four walls of a church. There are things for you to do there too. You can serve in the house of the Lord or you can serve in your community. But whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. And if anyone should ask why you're doing this, share your testimony. That you're a Christian and that, you know, you want to answer the Lord's call in your life to help people and do good things. That's it. It's very simple. My wife currently has stepped out in faith and is volunteering at our church's Vacation Bible School. This is the second Bible— Bible— Bible— what do you call it? Bible study? Bible school? BBS? Vacation Bible School! That's what you call it. Well, this is her second Vacation Bible Bible school of the season. And, you know, she doesn't regret it. Whether or not she chooses to do so in the future is, you know, really for her and the Lord to decide. But, you know, even if she never does it again, she won't regret doing it now, you know, because she, you know— and sometimes great fruit comes from it, like friends and, you know, changing people's lives. These are the results that, you know, can be small. My ministry, my community freedom ministry that I did at my local church, if you looked on the outside, might not seem so successful, but in it I grew my faith and my faithfulness, and that's how I met my wife. So hey, that's a great result for me. And, um, you know, I, I like to feel that we touch people's lives through it. And guess what? We recorded those teachings so they can go on, and people have commented and said that they're very glad that I have shared them. So, um, it's the gift that keeps on giving— my teachings from 2021. And they are available on the podcast for Victor Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker and Freedom in Christ. I encourage anyone who wants to follow the Lord, experience their freedom in Christ, to check them out. And we also share a Bible study that we do once a week with Arthur and Susanna Cinquatti, and that's available as well. If you don't know where these things are, go to m.t. for christ.org, look at today's blog post, and at the bottom you'll find a whole bunch of links for our podcast and our YouTube channel. So that's about it for today. Sort of changed things up, changed my schedule, but things are running a little bit late— or on time, I guess. So we should pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for the fact that you put a call on our lives to follow you. We might not know the details of that, Lord, but we know if we just keep going in your general direction and We stay in communication with you, you know, we can't go too far wrong, uh, as you will lead us and guide us through the good times and through the bad times, through the years that are lean and through the years that are prosperous. Um, Lord, we, we just want to serve you. We want to know you more, and we want to be more like Christ, because that's your call on our lives, is our sanctification the verse in Thessalonians says. So Lord, help us to be sanctified by, you know, by reading your word and renewing our minds and changing our lives to be more in line with that, rejecting the ways of the world and, uh, you know, the ways of the enemy that would lead us into confusion, anger, anxiety, worry, depression, or lust. Um, so Lord, help us to repent and turn to your ways for living. Lord, we thank you for the people listening today. Um, we, we pray for them and, and their walk, Lord, that you'd be with them and guide them and, and answer their prayer requests. We've lifted up some people in prayer this morning, uh, Lord, that are on our heart. We know that you, you listen to us when we call to you, and you help us as we go. Um, Lord, we just pray, of course, as always, uh, it's gonna be 94 degrees where I live, Lord, so we pray for you to keep us cool, um, and safe as we go about our day. And to, uh, so guide us and protect us and open our eyes to the good things that we have to see, uh, things you want us to know and things you want us to do. We pray for your direction and guidance and strength this day, um, to go the way you would have us go. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.