What to When You’re Not Invited - Purity 1433

Recording. Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Uh, today, to see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Uh, today's photo of an original work of art depicting the sun illuminating a water scene with a flower-filled shoreline comes to us from our man in the UK, Philip Han, who shared this latest work with me yesterday with the scriptural caption of Ecclesiastes 3:11, which says, "He has made everything beautiful in its own time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from the beginning to the end." Well, amen. And well, it's Thursday, and I share Philip's work today, uh, because his, uh, his talent and faith inspire me. And I like to encourage his artistic efforts because Philip is one of those living examples of how our faith in and relationship with God can change the way we look at the world. And take us from the darkness of depression, depressive mind states, and bring us into a state of gratitude, appreciation, and joy. Our natural tendency to focus on our problems and the things we don't have in life can easily cause us to wander into a dark place mentally or emotionally pretty quickly. But when we live according to who we are in Christ, and remember the beauty, uh, that surrounds us and all the blessings, talents, and gifts that we do have, we will see the light of God's goodness, mercy, and grace, and we can rejoice. Um, just last night, a friend shared how they were feeling low because they noticed that some of their friends had recently gotten together for a gathering and shared a photo of their party on social media. But they hadn't been invited to it. Uh, to make matters worse, the social media post featured another photo of the group, of a group gathering from the past that my friend had been in attendance for, making it starkly clear that they were once invited to the parties of the past, but now, for some unknown reason, found themselves off of the guest list. Whether for, from an oversight or an intentional exclusion, my friend was suffering pain because of a possible loss of relationship with people that they thought were their friends. Of course, even though the fact that they had to find out about the gathering through social media indicates that they may not have been as close to these people as they thought they were, and may have been lacking on their side of the fence with their efforts to stay connected with the group. It still hurts. Nobody likes to feel excluded. However, a little bit of truth and maturity in these difficult relational situations can help us move forward with wisdom. The Christian response would be to forgive the offense and then to decide whether or not the friendships that we have been slighted in are a thing of the past or are worth the effort and humility to seek to inquire about the lack of invitation, try to discern the reason why this may have happened, and to attempt to reestablish relationships that have drifted or have been broken. I know part of this person's story over the last year has been an increase in their relationship with, with God. They have shared their own social media post regarding their faith walk. And I can't help but think that some of their old friends may not have been thrilled with their walk, walking further into the light. Or they may think that their old friend who is, quote unquote, so religious now, wouldn't want to hang out like they used to. Unfortunately, sometimes our increase in faith is met with a decrease in our, quote unquote, friends. And we may have to accept the fact that in some ways, nothing will be the same again. But I know the immense value of being right with God and finding a relationship with him. And as much as we may grieve the loss of our earthly relationships that reject our faith, we can reestablish our peace and joy when we focus on, on him, on the Lord. Today's Turning Point devotional with David Jeremiah points to the importance of finding God's one way, and I'm sharing it today on the blog to remind us of all— remind all of us, uh, how special we are to be blessed with a relationship with God and how knowing him gives us so much more than this world has to offer. David Jeremiah writes One Way. He writes, the Bible tells us to contend earnestly for the faith which once uh, which was once for all delivered to the saints. For its— from its earliest days, Christian truth has faced attacks for its claim that Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with God. He said, I am the way. Peter defended this before the Jewish council, saying, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven which among men which under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12. People often say, you believe in your God and I'll believe in mine, and that's okay. But it isn't okay, for their path leads to destruction. It's often said if God could have saved humanity in any other way, he would have done it. But in keeping with the spiritual laws of the universe flowing from the existence of his character, The only way to atone for sins is through the blood of an innocent sacrifice. Make sure you have claimed Jesus as your way. That's from David Jeremiah. And he also shared a quote from Oswald Chambers that said, there is only one way by which I can get right with God, and that is through the death of Jesus Christ. Amen. Uh, let's, you know, let's rest in and rejoice in the fact that God has shown us the way to be right with him, and that when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, he will never leave us or forsake us. He will never not invite us to be with him because he loved us enough to send Jesus to die on the cross to give us a new life of freedom, peace, and joy. Meditate on that. Experience the peace and joy knowing that your sins are forgiven. And although, although one day your physical body may die, you will live forever with God because your faith in Jesus was all that was needed to make you right with him. God loves you, and even though others may reject you and life will be hard at times, he is always with you and cares for you at all times and seasons. Today's Bible verse comes from— to us from A Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on the forgiveness of sins, and today's verse is Luke 23:43. And the word of God says, and Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Today's verse falls under the 12th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the forgiveness of sins. And that 12th point is, Jesus forgave the murderer on the cross, an example of one saved only by grace. And I say today's verse is Jesus's words to a man who was at the end of his rope and only had one hope for life. The thief on the cross— I didn't know he was also a murderer. I think he's a rebel, you know, he's mostly associated with Barabbas. So yeah, um, the, the thief on the cross gives us all the hope, uh, gives all us all hope because he found life in God's kingdom when he had nothing to offer the Lord except his for his faith in him. How could we ever believe in a works-based, performance-based requirement for salvation when we know of this man's story? I suppose his story could be misconstrued to develop a quote-unquote deathbed exception to a theology that requires hard work and sinless perfection, um, for salvation. But the whole counsel of God reveals that God has always saved us by faith alone. Speaking of Abraham, Genesis 15:6, first book of the Bible, uh, says, and he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. God counted Abraham as righteous because he believed in him. And likewise, the thief on the cross believed in Jesus and was given the promise of paradise. That's good news for all of us. So believe in Jesus, rejoice because you are saved. And follow him into paradise here on earth, as it will be one day in heaven. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors, and where we offer our Christian life coaching and prayer ministry services. Um, but today we are sharing, um, from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture, and today's chapter is 1 Timothy 2. And from that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 8, which says, pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And then Stephen Alford writes, the apostle shows that the three conditions to prayer are holy hands the absence of wrath, and the absence of doubting. Holy hands— this must not be taken literally, of course. The meaning behind this phrase is holy living, a conscience without offense toward God and men. Acts 24:16. The absence of wrath, having a forgiving spirit, loving one another, and the absence of doubting. Having no unbelief, strong in faith. He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. But let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. James 1:6-7 says that. And Alfred ends by praying, remind me, O Lord, to come to your throne with a clean heart, a forgiving spirit, and a strong faith. Amen. Amen. And so what do you do when you're not invited to the party? What do you do after you walk in faith and discover that, wow, I don't have that many friends anymore? Um, well, just like Alford suggests for praying, we should, we should come to the Lord with a clean heart, you know, a forgiving spirit, and strong faith. And, uh, that's what we need as a disciple of Jesus Christ, because Christ said there you know, we would, we would find tribulation in the world, and that's because we believe in him. Um, you know, the world, you know, John, the Book of John says something in regards to, you know, that, um, you know, man avoided his light because he loved his own darkness. And that's unfortunately the way of the world. The vast majority of people do not have a, a redeemed relationship with Jesus. And have no, no knowledge of or regard for following him or living a righteous life. And so when we openly declare our faith on a social media post, people take notice. And, you know, you don't have to be all out there to be rejected for proclaiming even a little bit of faith in the Lord. So, you know, ask me how I know. Uh, but you know, when we review those relationships of the past that we found joy in, usually there's a lot of unrighteousness there, a lot of gossip, a lot of, uh, manipulation, a lot of, uh, sin, quite frankly, you know, alcohol and drugs, sex, um, unrighteous relationships. And, uh, you know, it's not the good old days anymore. It's the better old days. Better new days in Christ. And so we try to, you know, try to take care of our heart as we're hurt. We forgive people, for they know not what they do, or what they do. And we move along and keep moving on. And if we want, we can go back and say, you know, what are you going to do? Say, you know, get angry and say, why wasn't I invited? Well, because you're so pleasant. You know, oh, right. Uh, no, I better, uh, you know, be smart about this and ask about it in a way I won't offend anybody and see if people still like me. Um, you know, um, they might not like you anymore, you know. And quite frankly, the only relationship that lasts forever that's guaranteed is our relationship to the Lord. And so, you know, it takes— these are some of the hard truths of Christianity, that our relationships come to an end. Unless, unless we have faith in Jesus. And so we shouldn't be looking for validation or joy or peace from human relationships. We have to connect to the Lord to find that because it's the only relationship that doesn't run out. So that's what we point to. And when, when we do that, we understand that we fully surrender to God's will. When we ask the question, have you fully surrendered? To God's will. Because we believe that what you do with what the word says about you is the most important thing. And even though you're rejected, you're accepted in Christ. So when you do that, God will give you invitations, all kinds of things, including ministry. And that's what he's invited me to do, to the Celebrate Freedom support group that we lead on Wednesdays evenings. We had a meeting last night., and we're happy to encourage, uh, those who showed up. And we encourage you to show up next week if you're in the upstate, uh, region of the Capital District. We're at Clifton Park's Starpoint Church on Wednesday nights for Christian recovery and discipleship. And, uh, we'd love to encourage people to, to walk with the Lord and to get set free from those hurts, habits, and hangups. So that's you, uh, the Lord's calling you to repentance, the door's open, and we're inviting you to come in. And you can even register by going to Starpoint Church's website and looking us up under support groups to sign up. Also, there's resources out there like the Freedom in Christ course that's available through Freedom in Christ Ministries at ficm.org. Right now there's some, some courses available. You can see what the course offering is for this fall. Classes are filling up, and, uh, if, if you can't get into a class, you can always purchase the materials separately. And if you want, you can watch my teachings of the Freedom in Christ course, Bondage Breaker, or Victory Over Darkness on our web— on our YouTube channel. Um, you just look under our playlist and you'll find them eventually. Um, for Victory Over the Darkness, Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, where you can, you know, remotely do the discipleship course all by yourself. And if you wanted to reach out to go through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, you can do that through ficm.org. Or you can, you know, hire me as a Christian life coach to do some prayer ministry with you, um, if I'm available, which— that's not really a thing. I'm not available. Um, well, you never know, I might be available. We'd have to— we'd have to talk. Anyway, um, I'm— luckily I'm available because I'd be running a little bit late today, uh, as I am on vacation and it's a little later than normal, um, but um, vacation or not, I'm going to walk with the Lord and I'm going to pray. So let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for all that you do for us, Lord. We thank you for our salvation and the comfort you give us when people reject us, Lord. You give us a purpose for living and you give us the peace that goes beyond all understanding. Lord, we pray for you to give that to whoever may be listening today or reading today's message or you know, um, who's watching us on YouTube, Lord. If they've been rejected because of their faith, uh, we pray for you to come and give them healing, give them encouragement to keep going and keep walking and talking with you, Lord, because we know a life in your presence is the answer to all our problems, and, um, that you give us hope and a purpose like no one else could. And So Lord, we, we ask for you to, you know, guide us today as we go into life for one more day of living. Um, 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 your kingdom, share your, your love with others. And Lord, we definitely need your help with that. So Lord, please go before us, guide us. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.