I Don’t Have a Problem –
Lies of the Enemy #25– Purity 1037
Purity 1037 05/08/2023 Purity 1037 Podcast
Purity 1037 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun sitting on top of a cloud
formation as its light illuminates the green grass and the decorative well in
the side yard of my place “down by the River” comes to us from yours truly as I
deliberately walked around the corner of my house to capture what I knew would
be a worthwhile sight as the sun was riding high this past Friday afternoon upon
my arrival home from work. My presence
at River House was atypical for a Friday because when I don’t have to work on
Saturday, like I did this past weekend, I normally go north to my countryside home to be with my
wife. But even though I was tired and had things to do in doors, when I
realized that there was something good just around the corner I made a point to
take the time to appreciate it.
Well, It’s Monday again and my one day weekend flew
by but I was blessed by it all the same as my wife and I had our humble countryside
home to ourselves on Saturday evening and we spent yesterday in each other’s
company at church and at a picnic with a short hike in the afternoon. What our time together lacked in quantity, was
made up for in quality of one another’s presence.
But that was yesterday, and it is not only back to
work and back to reality, today I have the added excitement of having to pull
things together in terms of preparing to lead the recovery/discipleship growth
group – Celebrate Freedom – at my church in two days. This afternoon I plan on going to the church
to check out the facilities of the classroom I will be teaching in to know, experientially,
what I can do and what I can’t do in the place. Our meetings will include a time of worship
and while the classroom’s have television monitors – I need to know if I can
utilize them to “do worship” via lyric videos on YouTube or if I will have to use
my wife’s karaoke machine and hand out lyric sheets. Assurances and the intellectual knowledge
that “I could (probably) do that” is not enough. I may not be from Missouri but
when it comes to running a recovery ministry, you need to just tell me what I
could do – you need to “show me” what I can and will do. I have to see and do
it for myself – so I can know experientially – I can do this!
I have also finally taken the time to review the
first lesson that I will be teaching on Wednesday night on Denial. Although I
taught from the Celebrate Recovery Material regularly for 5 years at my
previous church. I haven’t reviewed
these lessons since the fall of 2020, when I made the executive decision to make
the recovery ministry a CFM (Community Freedom Ministry) which led to the mt4christ247
podcast, my marriage to TammyLyn, and to becoming an online Discipleship Course Leader for Freedom in Christ
Ministries. So even though I knew I
could lead a recovery ministry again, I took time last night and this morning to
“experience” the read through of the first lesson from the Celebrate Recovery curriculum. I need to know more than the fact that I
could do it, I needed to the know I can do it by reading through and “teaching”
the material.
The Celebrate Recovery material is good and after a
few alterations to the verbiage here and there to satisfy my focus on Trusting
the Lord and pursuing freedom rather than just doing “recovery”, I feel
confident that I will be ready to encourage the new group to trust the Lord to
help them with their “hurts, habits, & hangups”.
The first step to freedom from our problems, of
course is getting past our denial – by admitting we have a problem and asking
the Lord to help us to overcome it.
And as I am still in the midst of our current series
on the “Lies of the Enemy”, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily
whispered into our minds as “first person” statements, that the enemy tells us
to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us
to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. – I have decided to shine a light on our denial
for what it really is- just another big lie of the enemy. So,
Today’s big lie is:
Lie
#25: I Don’t Have a Problem.
Whether
this lie is in reference to the spiritual realm – where the enemy would have
you deny any need of a Savior – or if it
is told in reference to sinful or selfish choices that separate us from God or
others, the lie of “I Don’t Have a
Problem” – which is also classic denial – seeks to keep us in the darkness of
our current bondage or broken state and prevent us from experiencing the new
abundant life of peace and joy that the Lord has made available to all who put
their faith in Jesus.
While
this lie is an effective lie to keep people from pursuing spiritual matters or
a relationship of faith with God at all, it also operates in the confines of church
buildings and the hearts of some who would claim to be “Christians”.
While
we can see how “I don’t have a problem” can lead non believers to follow it up
with a “I don’t need God – or Jesus” proclamation. “I don’t have a problem” can also be used by
those who claim to be “followers of Jesus”.
I use that phrasing purposefully because it is the term my pastor, Roscoe
Lily, uses to describe “Christians disciples” – we are not just “believers” we
are “followers of Jesus” because its verbiage indicates that we don’t just
believe that what Jesus said was true, we actually try to apply His teachings
to our lives. We believe it and so we
try to live out our faith.
However,
some “Christians” believe in God’s forgivenesss, mercy, and grace to cover a
multitude of sins so much that they have fallen into the error of “Cheap Grace” which is “belief without
repentance” - They proudly claim they
are sinners saved by grace and do
nothing to reduce or change the sinful activities they do. They reason – I don’t have a problem” –
because Christ paid for their sin and so they sin-and confess and thank God
over and over for His mercy and love but refuse to follow His guidance to seek
sanctification through repentance.
This
attitude of “I don’t’ have a problem” because of Jesus – is extremely common in
our churches today and accounts for what should be surprising research findings
that “saved Christians” lifestyles are not significantly different from their
unsaved – nonbelieving – non-religious neighbors. Cheap grace makes the church as dirty as the
rest of the world, with unrepentant Christians (another oxy-moron) claiming
their “not perfect, but forgiven status.”
This attitude covers everything from secular worldliness to the sins of
the flesh, as people use there “faith” to excuse their sin. As hypocritical as
this attitude is, it seems to be on the rise as more and more churches are affirming
or excusing blatant sinful lifestyles and practices all in the name love or for
the purpose of sharing the “gospel of Jesus”.
The
problem is that Jesus said to do something more than just to believe the gospel. In
Mark 1:15 (NKJV) Jesus said
15 … "The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the
gospel."
We
are to believe in the gospel and we are to repent.
So
don’t believe the lie that “ I don’t have a problem”, if you don’t have Jesus as
your Lord and Savior. And don’t believe
that lie, if because you have Jesus, you think that you can continue in the
practices, activities, or lifestyles that the Bible calls sin - works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21, or an
abomimation (Leviticus 18:22).
Instead,
look at your life honestly, and if there are attitudes or actions that
contradict what the word of God says, admit that you do have a problem, to God and
to a trusted brother or sister in Christ, and ask them to help you to change. God can help you with all of your problems
but the first step is to tell Him - I
have a problem and I need your help.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity
than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s
website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verses are :
Luke 12:8-9
(NLT2)
8 “I
tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the
Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels.
9 But
anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels.
Today’s verses speak to the fact that if we believe in God and have made Jesus our Lord and Savior, we will be outspoken about our faith.
Here Jesus tells us that His followers will also be His witnesses by acknowledging our faith in Him publicly, with the warning that those who deny him here on earth would be denied in eternity.
The Apostle Peter springs to mind as a case study here. He of course out of fear denied Christ three times but after Jesus was resurrected and all doubts of Him being the Messiah were gone, and after Peter received the Holy Spirit, Peter’s days of denial were gone as He became a vocal and outspoken evangelist and leader of the church of Christ to the point martyrdom.
So as Christians, we must
speak about and live out our faith by being a witness of Jesus Christ. When we acknowledge
Him on earth, we will be acknowledged by Him in eternity. We can have the full assurance of or salvation
and place in God’s kingdom when we witness for Christ.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 continue sharing from “Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister
Reality” By June Hunt.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own
private study and to support her work. This resource is available online
for $7.99 (https://june-hunt.myshopify.com/collections/keys-for-living/products/keys-for-living-on-satan-demons-satanism_ ).
Satan, Demons & Satanism
A
Sinister Reality
by June Hunt
III. Causes of Attraction To Satanic Worship
A. The Pitfall of
Pride
What
motivates a person to participate in the sinister realm of satanism? How is the
flame of evil kindled in a disciple of darkness? To understand such depravity
of the soul is to understand the primary downfall of Satan. Created by God as a
“guardian cherub … full of wisdom and
perfect in beauty” (Ezekiel 28:14, 12), Satan’s heart became darkened with
pride as he sought ultimate power.
“Your
heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of
you before kings.”
(Ezekiel
28:17)
Isaiah
14:13–14
|
The angel of light lusts for—
|
|
The disciple of darkness—
|
|
Power …
|
|
|
|
“You [Satan] said
in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven.’ ”
|
|
—believes in supernatural power to achieve
personal goals
|
|
Recognition …
|
|
|
|
“I will raise my
throne above the stars of God.”
|
|
—desires personal glory and exaggerated
attention
|
|
Independence …
|
|
|
|
“I will sit
enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred
mountain.”
|
|
—refuses to submit to the sovereign
authority of God
|
|
Defiance …
|
|
|
|
“I will ascend
above the tops of the clouds.”
|
|
—challenges God with bold, insolent actions
and attitudes
|
|
Exaltation …
|
|
|
|
“I will make myself
like the Most High.”
|
|
—exalts self egotistically as God over the
lives of others
|
“In the
pride of your heart you say, ‘I am a god.’ ”
(Ezekiel
28:2)
Q “Since Satan knows so much about Scripture—even well
enough to quote it—why doesn’t he know that his fate is sealed?”
Ezekiel
chapter 28 describes Satan before he rebelled against God as “the model of perfection, full of wisdom.”
More than just knowledge, wisdom is appropriately applying knowledge to life.
However, pride corrupted his phenomenal wisdom, and today, while Satan still
possesses certain knowledge, his arrogant pride has not only contaminated his
wisdom but has also created a calloused heart much like that of a pathological
liar with a seared conscience.
“Your heart became proud on account of your
beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you
to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.” (Ezekiel 28:17)[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/@MT4Christ247
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 Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), 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)
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] June
Hunt, Biblical Counseling
Keys on Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister Reality
(Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 11–12.
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