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Monday, April 11, 2022

The Freedom from Guilt Two Step - Purity 702

The Freedom from Guilt Two Step -  Purity 702                              

Purity 702  04/11/2022  Purity 702 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a magnificently huge sun over the Sierra Nevada mountains comes to us from a friend who is travelling cross country put west and recently visited the Death Valley National Park that straddles the California-Nevada Border.  Our friend described the area as “otherworldly” because of the parks “wildly different landscapes. They testified that they “went 5500 ft up to Dante’s view to 280 ft below seas level to Badwater Basin within a matters of hours.”  

Well it’s Monday again and just like our friend’s testimony shows us that we can go from great heights to great depths in terms  of altitude in a relatively short time, we can also go from the heights of the joy of the weekend to the depths of depression at the contemplation of another work week if we are not careful to keep things in perspective by reminding ourselves that the joy of the Lord is our strength and that we can always have peace if we are standing on “the Rock” of our salvation, Jesus Christ, and stay grounded in our identity in Christ.  

Even though it rained quite a bit this past weekend, I didn’t hitch my emotions to the changing circumstances of the atmosphere but remained in good spirits because I abided in the peace of who I am in Christ through Bible study and prayer, as I do each morning, and by abiding in the love of the woman that God brought into my life, my wife, TammyLyn Clark.

Now I know, not everyone has a spouse. I mention my wife, because of the great joy I have in our marriage, but the reason why we are so content with one another because of the context of our relationship.  We got to know one another through our decision to faithfully follow the Lord’s call on our lives and I know that we wouldn’t have what we have in our marriage without the Lord in our lives.

As much as a man and wife can love and forgive one another to establish “a peaceful, easy feeling”, there can be no real peace unless one deals with the problem of the guilt of their sin.   It doesn’t matter if you are super popular with multitudes of adoring friends, have a “soul mate” that make you giddy in their presence, or if you are happy all by your self,  there is no true peace unless the guilt of our sin is forgiven.  

As much as I talk about the peace, love, and joy that I have in my life because I “walk in the Spirit”,  I need to be clear here: we first have to be “in the Spirit” to walk in it.   And the only way we are “in the Spirit” is by receiving the Holy Spirit by being “born again” by making Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

And why would anyone make Jesus their Lord and Savior?  

We make Jesus our Lord and Savior because it is only through Him that we can be reconciled to God. It is only through faith in Jesus that we can be forgiven of our sins. It is only through Jesus that we can lose the guilt of our sin.   

I recently testified that when I did jail ministry I had a 3 point rapid fire jailhouse apologetic for the existence of God. 

1.    We know there is a God because of creation. Who made all this? God did.

2.    We know there is a God because we know right from wrong.  I don’t care who you are or what you say, the Bible is true when it tells us in Romans 12:14-15 that God’s law is written on our hearts. We know when we did wrong. Why? God put that in us.

Now we could ignore, warp and harden our consciences to convince ourselves that our sin is “no big deal” but I honestly believe that even the most perverse and degenerate person would have to admit, if they are capable of a moment’s honesty, that even they knew that at some point in their life they knew in their hearts, that what they were doing was wrong.

So what do we do with that guilt?  

Well, as I said, only being forgiven by God for the violation of His standards and principles, that are written on our hearts and documented in the word of God, can alleviate us of our guilt.  God’s plan for the forgiveness of our sins is Jesus Christ.  

But you may wonder why, if a covenant relationship through faith in Jesus Christ is the only thing we need to alleviate us of the guilt of our sin, why it is that so many Christians don’t have peace in their lives.   

As I indicated, the continuous manifestation of peace, love, and joy in our lives comes from “walking in the Spirit”, which is a super spiritual way to refer to repenting of our sins and living according to the Lord’s wisdom and ways.  

We have great joy at the moment of our salvation because we are forgiven of our sins and are given a new eternal spiritual life that is sealed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  

But if we just go about our business as we did before our salvation experience and don’t repent of our sin and walk in the Spirit, we will sin again and suffer a loss of our peace because our hearts will tell us that we aren’t living out the new life that God wants us to enjoy.  

So to enjoy our new life in Christ, we have to stop dancing to the beat of our own drummer and start doing the “Freedom from Guilt Two Step” where we do:

Step 1: Take Jesus by the Hand, Do – Si- DO and make Him your Lord and Savior, Man!

And

Step 2: Repent of Your Sin, and Endeavor to Never Do It Again!

Forgive the square dancing analogy, but to experience our freedom in Christ and the have the fruit of the Spirit manifest in our life in our lives on a continual basis, we can not just do step 1 of this Christian Two Step. 

We can not just continually claim the blood of Jesus to cover our sins and keep on sinning. Believe me, I danced that dance for years. And it is utterly exhausting, taking Jesus’s hand to pull you up only to turn around and to do a face plant right back into your sinful habits.  That sin-confess-sin confess merry go round was not what the Lord meant by an abundant life.  

Now, we must stop the “tug of war” of sin by letting go of it. We must see that we struggle with certain sins that take away our peace and decide to stop the struggle by choosing not to do the things we struggle with. 

“Yeah, I know I struggle with that… like all the time.” 

“Did you know that Christ gives you the power, to choose not to? Did you know you could choose to end the struggle, by deciding to never do the things you struggle with again.”  

I know that sounds impossible, to let go of a besetting sin or habit you struggle with. 

But what is impossible with man, is possible with God.

So accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and enjoy all the love and peace that comes from knowing that you are forgiven, that you are a child of God, that has been given a new and everlasting life in Christ.  

But also, show your trust in Christ by leaning on His strength and wisdom to make the decision to let go of the sins that trip you up and to never do them again.  That’s walking and talking with God.  We can go our own way, but brothers and sisters, can I tell you, that our lives will be defined by the peace, love, and joy of the Lord if we simply choose to go the Lord’s way instead.   

So do the “Freedom from Guilt Two Step” and dance, prance, and walk into a life of continuous freedom and victory.

When you do that, you can demonstrate the third point of my “jailhouse” apologetic for the existence of God: 

3.    Transformed lives.  

This one ain’t the way they used to be because they put their faith in Christ and were given the power to change.  When we do that “Freedom from Guilt Two Step”, we become evidence for the existence of God, a representative for His kingdom, and an on going testimony for the power of Jesus Christ to save and give new life to the people who put their trust in Him, right here and right now. 

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Today’s Bible verses comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

2 Corinthians 8:11-12 (NLT2)
11  Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have.
12  Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have.

Today’s verses from the Apostle Paul encourage us to continue in our faith by letting the joy of our new life in Christ continue and to be demonstrated by our giving.  

We all have different resources, talents, and abilities.  We are all unique and God knows our unique situations perfectly.   God knows us and He wants all of us. But what “all of us” is will look a lot different from person to person.   

We are to surrender our lives to God’s kingdom when we come into it by putting our faith in Jesus. But our individual characteristics and circumstances will play apart in what we are able to give to the Lord.  

We have a lot of learning and a lot of maturing to do to become conformed to the image of Christ but God knows this.  He understands our limitations but He encourages us to give what we can “eagerly”. 

Our relationship with the Lord is a love relationship. He loved us and called us into a life with Him where we can grow in our knowledge and love for Him.  He is patient, kind, and understanding and He doesn’t want any false obligatory forms of worship.

He wants us to be real and authentic in our love for Him.  He wants our hearts to want to give ourselves to Him completely, but He is patient and will allow us to learn to trust Him with what we can give to Him now, knowing that if we continue to follow Him we will trust Him with more and more. 

So give to the Lord eagerly, from what you have, and not from what you don’t have.  Whether its money, your time, or your efforts and skills, the Lord will gladly accept whatever it is that you give, if you give them with an sincere heart that is eager to draw closer to Him.  

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.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 begin sharing from John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life” .  

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase John Pipers’  books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

Preface

For Christians and Non-Christians

The Bible says, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). I have written this book to help you taste those words as sweet instead of bitter or boring.

You are in one of two groups: Either you are a Christian, or God is now calling you to be one. You would not have picked up this book if God were not at work in your life.

If you are a Christian, you are not your own. Christ has bought you at the price of his own death. You now belong doubly to God: He made you, and he bought you. That means your life is not your own. It is God’s. Therefore, the Bible says, “Glorify God in your body.” God made you for this. He bought you for this. This is the meaning of your life.

If you are not yet a Christian, that is what Jesus Christ offers: doubly belonging to God, and being able to do what you were made for. That may not sound exciting. Glorifying God may mean nothing to you. That’s why I tell my story in the first two chapters, called “Created for Joy.” It was not always plain to me that pursuing God’s glory would be virtually the same as pursing my joy. Now I see that millions of people waste their lives because they think these paths are two and not one.

There is a warning. The path of God-exalting joy will cost you your life. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” In other words, it is better to lose your life than to waste it. If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. This is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life. Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy.

Please know that I am praying for you, whether you are a student dreaming something radical for your life, or whether you are retired and hoping not to waste the final years. If you wonder what I am praying, read Chapter 10. That is my prayer.

For now, I thank God for you. My joy grows with every soul that seeks the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Remember, you have one life. That’s all. You were made for God. Don’t waste it.

March 31, 2003

John Piper

 

1: My Search for a Single Passion to Live By

My father was an evangelist. In fact he still is, even though he doesn’t travel now. When I was a boy, there were rare occasions when my mother and sister and I traveled with him and heard him preach. I trembled to hear my father preach. In spite of the predictable opening humor, the whole thing struck me as absolutely blood-earnest. There was a certain squint to his eye and a tightening of his lips when the avalanche of biblical texts came to a climax in application.

“I’ve Wasted It, I’ve Wasted It”

Oh, how he would plead! Children, teenagers, young singles, young married people, the middle-aged, old people—he would press the warnings and the wooings of Christ into the heart of each person. He had stories, so many stories, for each age group—stories of glorious conversions, and stories of horrific refusals to believe followed by tragic deaths. Seldom could those stories come without tears.

For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age. The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone’s amazement he came and took my father’s hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life. But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face—and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears—“I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”

This was the story that gripped me more than all the stories of young people who died in car wrecks before they were converted—the story of an old man weeping that he had wasted his life. In those early years God awakened in me a fear and a passion not to waste my life. The thought of coming to my old age and saying through tears, “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!” was a fearful and horrible thought to me.[1]

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


[1] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), 9–12.

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