What is God Saying in Your Adversity - Purity 1404

Good morning, welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. This is M.t. Clark and, uh, this is today's photo. Uh, to see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a gravel roadway bordered by seas of green meadows underneath a clear blue sky comes to us from yours truly as I took a moment to capture the view of the return trek to my countryside home down the free Freedom Road this past Saturday. Well, it's Thursday, and I'm sharing this pathway photo, as is my habit on Thursday, as a visual reminder and encouragement to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship, because it really is the best way to walk through life, and it just happens to be the pathway to peace and joy. Um, Well, since that clear Saturday and a heat index warning in the beginning of the week, thunderstorms came rolling in to upstate New York, causing the heat, heat to drop along with a fair share of trees across the countryside, including one in my own backyard. I spoke yesterday about dealing with it and considered taking on the Herculean task of cleaning it up all by myself in bite-sized bits. But thankfully, my wife Tammy Lynn stood in the gap, um, yeah, stood in the gap for me and made appeals for help from some of our church friends. And I'm happy to report that Scott Salvador, the two-time defending back-to-back mullet champ of these United States of America, heard the cry for help and graciously offered to use his lumber know-how and resources from his landscaping business, Salvador Services. You see the, uh, the link on the blog today, and his men's ministry at our church to help me get her done, uh, as a fellowship event on Friday. While I'm skeptical about seeing how many people will be able to— he will be able to enlist on a workday, I didn't hesitate to say yes and amen to his generous offer for a second. Um, unlike times in the past when out of pride or fear of rejection Um, I hadn't asked for help with my problems. I am asking and accepting, and accepting help more and more these days, um, because I understand that we're not supposed to go it alone, uh, if we don't have to. And if we're not supposed to learn— and, uh, well, that we are supposed to learn and grow from the trials we face. Ironically, after I had the solution to this current problem in place, I received insights and revelation of other messes in my life, uh, that I had to clean up. As I have testified before on the blog, the first half of 2024 was jam-packed with activity. And even though I can look back and marvel over all that occurred yesterday, I realized that in the midst of all that activity, I was leaving something undone. And that caused me to be convicted and to repent in dust and ashes yesterday. One of the duties of a Christian is to support his house of worship with regular tithes and offerings. While I have tithed in the past, my track record is inconsistent and would— and, and my contributions to my local church would shift in various directions with changes in my financial status, along with a good argument of supporting rationalization. Rationalizations to defend my lack of faithfulness in this area. I won't give any, any of those to you now and would only put forth that whatever we would like— no, whatever way we would like to slice it, Christians are supposed to tithe to God what is his. So yesterday I surrendered all of my rationalizations and asked God to forgive me and decided to arrange for a regular quote-unquote tithe to my local church that would meet the requirements of making regular, uh, regular offering and keep me within the criteria of being a cheerful giver. That's important. Uh, well, I understand that this area can be a big bone of contention and debate, can be used as subdivision, and can be abused as a performance-based measure of legalism. My heart is, is not surrendered to please my local congregation or my pastor, but is It is, but this is something I want to do for God and God alone. And like most of those, uh, pulls of the Spirit that come upon us, it is immediately taking me out of my comfort zone and causes me to make adjustments to how I think and how I spend my money, uh, rather haphazardly, if I'm, uh, to be honest. Buying things I don't need is an issue It is actually the subject of a Stronghold Buster that has been neglected and was— and it was through this recent tree calamity that God brought me to repentance. Uh, I was listening to an audiobook about walking in the Spirit and thanking God for my good fortune when I reached out to God to thank him. And the subject of the audiobook talked about tithing. Uh, it's, it shifted. Sovereign God arranges things to wake us up. And in the midst of rejoicing over a solution to a problem, the Lord revealed to me an area where I was missing the mark. So as much as it pained me to admit it, I confessed that I was wrong. I asked for God's forgiveness and committed myself to do it, to do what's right going forward. Uh, why do we have to suffer sometimes to hear God speak? Uh, because we tend not to seek his presence or to try to or try to listen to his voice otherwise, um, or at least not as much as we do when we really need his help. Yesterday in In Touch devotional, In Touch with Charles Stanley, his devotional touched on this subject, and, uh, he wrote— actually, shift it to what he wrote— um, suffering aids in the development of faithful Christians. If we all had a life without trials or pain, we'd never really grow really know God because we never need him. Adversity teaches us more about the Lord than simply reading the Bible ever will. If what we believe is never tested by adversity, it remains head knowledge. The Lord gives us opportunities to apply scriptural truths to the difficulties facing us. In the process, we find him faithful. For example, how would Paul ever have known the strength of Christ if he had never weakened? Been weakened by persecution, pain, and adversity. Trials can either build our faith or lead to discouragement. If you believe what scripture says and apply its principles to your situation, your trust in God will grow. And the way your faith— and that— and that way your faith will be strengthened through adversity. And Charles Stanley's always got good things to write, but this is what I wrote. Trials can either build our faith— well, no, That's what he wrote. My bad. So take your adversity. Yeah, no, I wrote— I'm sorry. Wow. Our trials and the adversity we face can help us to hear God because it will cause us to ask him for help. Sometimes help comes quickly, but we may also be called to walk through a long period of suffering that will challenge us to rely on God's strength and presence to survive. Why is this happening to me? is a question we often ask. And while I am not suggesting that we did something wrong to cause our suffering, although that is often the case, I am suggesting that we can't go wrong by choosing to follow Jesus and his ways to lead us through the fire. So take your adversity, your pain, your suffering, and hard questions to the Lord and ask him for the wisdom, strength, comfort, guidance, and peace that only he can give to help you on your walk through life. So keep walking and talking with God, and he will see you through good times and bad. Today's Bible verse is come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on false prophets and teachers. Now, our, our counseling reference guide does, um, highlight all of 2 Corinthians 11 for this passage, but they, they highlight verses 13 through 15, and that's what we're sharing today. Um, and the word of God says, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. Today's verses fall under the 8th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on false prophets, and that 8th point is, uh, false teachers masquerade also as angels of light. And Um, I— and today's, today's verses remind us that even the evil one can appear to be an angel of light. And so we should be very discerning in who we receive teaching from and to be diligent in comparing what they say to the truth of scripture. But we should also examine, examine, um, examine their lives to see if they are producing fruit springing from the Holy Spirit or from a foul spirit. Uh, a word on angels of light: it is very difficult to see the truth when we are deceived or being deceived. And so that is why a regular study and commitment to knowing what the Bible says and what it means is so very important. We can't spot a counterfeit unless we know the real thing. So we shouldn't be lazy, and we should, and we should listen carefully to what is being said and how the truth of Scripture is being applied. Are the things taught a little off base? Does the Word really mean that? What do other Bible scholars say? What does the Holy Spirit reveal to you about what is being said? And are these teachers using the Word to exact control or financial benefits beyond that of a good shepherd? Ask the questions, examine the fruit, and rejoice when you find your leaders are faithful and true to God's word. 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, um, Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And today's message is based on Galatians 1. And from Galatians 1, Alford shares a portion of verse 16, which says, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. And Stephen Alford writes, Paul was not a man who was easily persuaded by man. In fact, he would never be influenced at the expense of right. Notice verse 10: If I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. When God revealed Christ in him and his eyes were open, he did not immediately confer with flesh and blood but went exactly where God led him. Surely here lay the great power of the apostle. He was not dependent on the support of others. But was entirely dependent on God from the very beginning of his ministry. He was not one to ponder to or pander to the flesh or popularity of others. He took all his orders from God. And Stephen Alford ends by praying, thank you for reminding me that it is you I serve and not those who seek to influence me with position or power. Amen. Amen. Yeah, we're not here to serve, you know, we're— I guess we are here to serve man, but we do so as an extension of God's kingdom. And so, um, you know, the scripture draws out that when we try to please men, it usually leads to destruction. Um, one example is King Saul from, uh, the first king of Israel. He wanted to please men and he disobeyed God. And God, you know, punished him by taking away the kingdom from him and departing from him and leading him to destruction in battle, or at least he didn't bless him in battle. So we want to, you know, we're in— and the apostles are an example as well, as Peter and John preached in the Book of Acts about Jesus Christ, healed someone, and the Pharisees Uh, the leaders of the church— or, well, leaders in the synagogue told them not to preach in Jesus' name anymore, um, to which they said, no, um, we're gonna, we're gonna do, we're gonna keep, keep speaking the word of God because, uh, we'd rather obey man than God, you know. So, um, yeah, and that's what we try to do. We, we, we're not people pleasers. I'm— my decision to start tithing, you know, Um, you know, and why do I say tithing with the quotes? Well, because I'll keep it real. Um, it's 10% according to a certain calculation, okay? Um, what that calculation is between me and the Lord, and, uh, it's going to be a challenge for me to, um, give at that level. Um, and That's why we're there. And could it be more? Yeah. Could it be less? Absolutely. Um, but it, it seemed to be the right amount, um, through our, our talk yesterday, me and the Lord. So making a regular weekly contribution because quite frankly, what I discovered was, uh, due to an error, um, I wasn't giving anything. Oops. Um, yeah, I wasn't giving anything for a couple months. At all. And it wasn't because of my hardness of heart, even though my heart was hard. It was because of a financial error. Basically, I set up a new payment method, but they hadn't set up the payment. Whoops. And like I said, the previous 6 months was busy and apparently I missed it. And that's okay. You know, we are forgiven. We're not— we don't get into the kingdom of heaven because of what we give. We gave, you know, we, well, we, we give our faith in Jesus. That's what we give. It's not about our performance. It's about, you know, what the Lord calls us to do. And I wanted to be obedient to the principles of Scripture, to, to be giving and to not be so consuming. So it's great. How do you get over, you know, being greedy? You give. Yeah, how do you get over being angry? You, you forgive. You forgive. You know, so there's a balance, and God gives us the balance. His way is the way we walk in balance. When we don't walk according to his word, we're out of balance, and, uh, we mess up. So, uh, I'm a teacher, but I'm also learning, uh, so as I've been walking with the Lord for a while now, 10 years of, um, born-again existence. But, uh, really, um, there's always more to learn. And, uh, not just facts and figures and scripture and commentaries, but, uh, how it all applies to our life. That's what's, uh, what we really have to learn. Anyway, uh, luckily I still have other things, and I, and I try to teach these things to other people in various places. And one of the places I try to teach or encourage, um, I take a step back from teaching, uh, to lead at Celebrate Freedom, the support group at Starpoint Church that meets on Wednesdays at 6:30. And that'll start next Wednesday, this coming Wednesday, on July 24th, as we begin, uh, begin again with the Celebrate Recovery material, starting with Lesson 1, Denial., and we're going to be going all the way to Christmas. Um, so if you want to be, you know, set free from here to, you know, to really celebrate Christmas this year, you know, you can join us and celebrate freedom, um, at, at Starpoint Church. Albeit you'd have to be somewhere near the Capital District of New York State to enjoy the fellowship that we offer there. Um, however, um, there are other ways to fellowship, and one of those ways is through online classes. And Freedom in Christ Ministries happens to be offering discipleship courses this fall, and one of the courses they offer is for men on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM Eastern Time. Um, that's going to be led by me. Um, so if you're a man and you want to, want to be, uh, increased in your faith and given the freedom of Christ, uh, we suggest you sign up for the Tuesday night class with M.t. Clark. Um, so, well, that's, that's out there. ficm.org is the place where you would go to, uh, register. And the cost for the courses— my course is $49. Um, um, other courses have different amounts, so, um, be wise and discerning and pick the course that's right for you. And, uh, be true to the course that God's put you on. That's the best course you can take. Anyway, um, that's all we have for today. Um, but just because we're done with the message doesn't mean we're done, because we got to pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all you do for us. We thank you for your forgiveness most of all, because we're not perfect people and, um, we mess up a lot. We don't mess up like we used to or as much as we used to, but we know that we need you. And the adversities we face really show that we need you. Um, we need you to make sense of it all, and we need you to guide us in the way we should go. So we're praying for that today, Lord. We also pray for anyone who's listening or watching, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, Lord, that you would bless them and, and guide them in their walk of faith. And so, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord, and, uh, we're going to need your help. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.