“Willing to Become Willing” Purity 847

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. We are running late today, and so we're gonna cut to the chase. Let's get this done. Anyway, good morning. Today's photo of a roaring fire neatly contained in front of a lake that is perfectly reflecting the nearby shore and the heavens above comes to us from a friend who shared this view of their perfect night on the lake on social media back on August 13th. My friend lives in Greene County, but as for the location of this lake, your guess is as good as mine, as my friend didn't feel moved to share that information, perhaps with the motivation to keep the contentment they had found to themselves. Well, it's Tuesday, and while we should be wise and discerning and discerning in our choices of what information we will share and with whom. Uh, as, as someone who encourages others to experience their freedom in Christ, I'm somewhat dumbfounded when I encountered others in the body of Christ who decide to not only choose to keep their information guarded from me— I get that— but who also seem to be hesitant to trust the Lord or themselves with the shadows of their pasts. This past weekend, my pastor Rasko Lilly concluded his series on emotional hygiene. I'm sharing the link to it on the Ask Seek Knock Facebook group today, um, so if you want to see it, check it out. Um, he concluded that series though by, by addressing, um, guilt and shame and how our faith in Christ and our relationship with God resolves these issues for good. And At the end of the message, Pastor Roscoe Lilly invited people to come up and lay down whatever guilt and shame that they may have had been carrying by humbling themselves before the Lord in prayer. It may not be surprising that only, only a few of the rather large crowd went forward, which could indicate that we have a healthy church filled with people that have repented of their sins successfully and have already resolved any issues with guilt and shame. Or it could indicate that people with secret sins and who have guilt and shame preferred to remain in the shadows of our darkly lit worship center because they didn't trust the Lord to help them, and they didn't want to step forward and expose their silent struggle in front of the entire church. I've only been going to Starpoint, uh, Church for less than a year in person, and while the people I have met who serve in the church seem very friendly and the leadership seems solid in their Christian doctrine, I know that as in every church, some of the attendees may not be living out their faith to the point that they have victory over the sins that have plagued them, and may live like most of their neighbors who are not ashamed of their complete lack of faith, or who only grace a church with their presence at Christmas or Easter. So when you don't see people go up for prayer, it is not surprising. Most people want to keep their problems to themselves and certainly don't want to make a quote-unquote spectacle of themselves in public. But I love the fact that my church gave people the opportunity to do it, and it is my hope that the message touched people's hearts so that they made peace with God and laid their guilt— laid down their guilt and shame, even if they didn't leave their seats. One thing I learned when I went through and then taught at and then later led the Christian Recovery Program us celebrate freedom in my former church was that we are only as sick as our secrets, and that our victory over sin is not about willpower, it's about our willingness to trust the Lord to help us and to follow him. My new pastor gave his congregation the opportunity to trust the Lord, and I know that when we are open and willing before our God Amazing things can happen—things like freedom, victory, and transformation—but those things all come from surrendering to God. I mean, how can you "let go and let God" if you "won't go there" when it comes to things in your past? How can you say, "I don't have to do that" or "I don't want to do that" when you receive an opportunity to take a step of faith that could lead to the life of peace, joy, and love that you always wanted? But I get it, this world teaches us to hide our pain and to not trust anyone. So I'm not going to push you out of the shadows, but I would encourage you to pray to the Lord to become willing— to become willing, uh, to trust him with your guilt, to trust him with your pain, to trust him with your shame, and to provide you with his healing, freedom, and victory. So don't sweat it. After my long walk of faith, I understand when you feel you are not ready to go there. But after all I have been through, I know that I wish I had started trusting the Lord sooner and had not been so stubborn to be willing to follow him. However, I will encourage you to keep walking and talking with God, because if you do that, I know that he will guide you in the way you should go. And someday you will decide for yourself to go there with the Lord and become willing to receive all he has for you. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 146:8, and it says, the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. The Lord loves the godly. Today's Bible verse assures us that the Lord will open the eyes of the blind, will lift up— will lift lifts us up when we are weighed down, and, and that he loves the godly. He does love the godly. Um, the word of God is true, and this verse should encourage us to live a godly life and to trust the Lord to lift us up and open our eyes to the things we do not yet see. The Lord is alive, guys, and he blesses those who follow him in all kinds of ways. So my simple advice is to trust him and follow him, and he will open your eyes and he will lift you up and he will make you feel his love. So, um, that's all the message I have today because basically I have enough time to upload it and get out of here on time. But as always, even with the rush, uh, I do share— I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship, and we're beginning chapter 4, Discipleship and the Cross. And I'm sharing just a short section of that. It's a short chapter, um, so if you want to see how that begins, go to m.tforchrist.org to check it out. And if you want to see a teaching on Bonhoeffer's chapter 4 The Cross and Discipleship. I will be uploading one on YouTube, prayerfully, God willing, on Thursday, as me and Peter McCabbage are walking through those pages. And we could be possibly in— and joined by others, as I put out an invite to my former graduates from Freedom in Christ. But, um, but so that's, that's in the works, and, uh, we invite you to check that out. Um, if you have problems with guilt and shame, we always recommend our discipleship teachings for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Uh, they're all available on the podcast and our YouTube channel. Um, so, uh, without further ado, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, somehow you make it all work. Um, and we, we thank you, uh, for what you've done for us that took away our guilt and shame. And led us into victory. And all we had to do was be willing to follow you and willing to believe what you said about us is true. And now that we know who we are in Christ, we're encouraged to help others. So Lord, we just pray for the people listening today, Lord, that they'd be blessed by your divine favor and that their hearts become willing to, uh, to surrender a little bit more of themselves to you, um, and to trust you with, uh, with, with freedom and victory for the things they need to overcome. Lord, we pray for, uh, all the people who are suffering. We have friends who are sick, um, as we prayed for them this morning, um, and friends who are in transitional periods of life, um, so we pray for them as well. And Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things we need to see, and and lead us into the things we need to do as we, we only seek to do your will because we have learned that your way is the good way, your way is the, is the perfect way. And, um, all we want to do is, uh, honor you because you honored us with the gift of salvation and the gift of the word of God and Lord, we just pray for your, your help, uh, to, to help us, uh, to follow you and, and to do the things that you've prepared for us. Lord, we love you, we praise you, and we thank you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.