0:13 I am a very bad person. Even my parents don't know who the real me is. I want to repent. Will God accept me? I want to live a life for Jesus. What should I do? How do I know if I have truly repented? This is I appreciate the honesty of this 0:32 question and it's a beautiful place to be where we can be honest before God and uh many of you may one of you one of you asked this question but many of you may feel this way and may have not been willing to express it and I want you to 0:49 know at the outset that exactly because you are a bad person is why Jesus That's that's who the invitation Jesus came for. That's the invitation. He he he's issuing an he didn't come to invite good people to come to him. He didn't come to accept 1:09 good people. Jesus came to invite bad people like yourselves, people who were sinners, people who were so sick of their own sin and were so honest about how rotten they were. And so, dear young brother, young 1:26 sister, run back. Or if it's your first time, run to God. Run to God right now. He will not cast you out. There's a verse in John 6:37 which says, "All who come to me, I will certainly not cast out." So, if you've grown up or you've gotten 1:44 a false representation from a Sunday school lesson or from a church message saying that you're a bad person and you're too bad to come to God, there is no such thing. That's a lie of the devil. In fact, Jesus came, it says Jesus came 1:59 for the sick. He came for sinners. And so, he came especially for you. He didn't come for the good people or for the people who uh want to be good on their own strength. He came especially for you. run back to him. There's a 2:12 verse in Isaiah 55:7 which says, "Let the wicked," this is what you feel like right now. You feel wicked. Not just a sinner, but you feel absolutely wicked. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous person his thoughts. 2:28 Let him return to the Lord. Let him run back to the Lord. And the Lord will certainly have compassion on him. For our heavenly father, he will abundantly pardon. Our God will abundantly pardon. And I love that word abundantly pardon. 2:44 It's not just saying, "Okay, you did it again. Okay, I'm going to forgive you." No, God is abundant. He is so rich with his forgiveness if I run back to him. And that's the story we see of the prodigal son. when the prodical son was 3:01 decided to return back to his father and said you know I'll plead and with my father and say I have sinned against you and it says the father ran back to him and then celebrated him with a big party because his son had returned 3:16 and I want to tell you young brothers and young sisters even if you've given your life to Jesus if you run back to him after you've sinned he celebrates you once more, he will still abundantly pardon. He will still throw a big party 3:31 for you because you have run back to him. So, we have a many of us have a false understanding of a father as a policeman ready to get us in trouble. He is not a policeman. He's a loving father. Yes, he doesn't want us to do it 3:43 again. But he wants us to stay in the home and not run out of the home again. But never forget that he will abundantly pardon if you come in humility. If you come with the humility and the honesty in which you just asked that question, 3:56 the the devil will lie to you and tell you you cannot come back. Um, one thing I'll mention in this context is the sin of discouragement. I believe many of you, including the one who may have asked this question, may be 4:15 struggling with discouragement of saying, "I'm not good enough to come back to God because of my sin." And this is something I've said to many young people, but I'll re reiterate it here. The greater sin, the greater sin is not the sin of 4:30 lusting with your eyes or sexual sin or losing your temper or or um getting angry or disobedience. The greater sin is the sin that the devil will use to keep you down. It's not the sin that tripped you up. It's a sin that 4:49 will keep you down. And the one sin that will keep you down is discouragement and condemnation. And the devil will use that to say you're not worthy to run back to the Lord. When you've sinned, remember this always. Don't fall into the greater sin 5:07 of staying down. You've already tripped up. Now bounce back up and and run back. Run back to the Lord. There's a verse in Proverbs 24:16 which says, "The righteous man may fall seven times, but he will rise up again." And that's a new 5:22 covenant verse, which is to say, "God, my heavenly father will declare me righteous even if I fall seven times today. If I run back to him every time after I run back to him, it doesn't say the righteous man is one who is perfect 5:35 all the time, who has a perfect day." The righteous man is the one who runs back to the Lord seven times. Seven times he's fallen but seven times he runs back to the Lord in repentance. And then the last part of this verse 5:48 which is about repentance. I think um it's something we have to be careful about because many of us might use a formula that says uh I'm going to say these words. There's many there's many uh uh people who call themselves 6:03 Christians uh even in the Catholic church who have a formula that say oh you must go confess to a priest or you must say these phrases and then you you will be forgiven. We don't believe as new covenant Christians as ones who follow follow 6:19 Jesus we don't believe in formulas that result in repentance but we believe that it is a change of the heart. It's a turning around. That's what repentance means. It's a turning around which is to say I may have fallen but I don't want 6:32 to ever fall again. And the way it's been described my dad has used this analogy before is when we give our lives to Jesus uh 2 Corinthians 5:1 17 I think says we're a new creation and we're we don't have this old way of 6:48 doing things. And the analogy he's used is the difference between a pig and a cat. A pig fall likes to hang out in the mud. And if you think of mud or falling into dirty water, uh that you think of that as sin. The pig enjoys being there. The 7:05 pig wants to be be there. The pig might say, "Oh, I'm going to get out and clean myself, but really the desire of the pig's heart is to be there and hang out there, to be in that dirty water." But when you're a new creation, 7:17 God changes you from a pig to a cat. And the difference between a cat and a pig is a cat falls into that dirty water. May fall into it accidentally, but immediately when they're convicted, they want to clean themselves up. They don't 7:30 have a desire to sin anymore. They may fall into sin, but deep in their heart, they're disgusted by it, and they don't want to hang out there. And that's what true repentance means. Is when you have a change of your heart where you've 7:43 given your life back to the Lord and you don't want to ever sin again. That's what true repentance is. It's not a formula. It's not a pig saying, "Oh, I don't want to be in this dirty water." But it's the pig becoming a cat saying, 7:55 "I really am disgusted with it in my heart that I don't want. I know that that disgusts me. And if if I fall again, I don't even want to think about falling again. But if I fall again, I know that I can run back to a heavenly 8:09 father who is abundant in his forgiveness and to a heavenly father who will declare me righteous even if I've fallen seven times today. I have already taken baptism yet compared to before I am now committing more sins sometimes 8:24 knowingly. Will God accept me? What can my personal testimony be to others? And how can I break bread with the church? >> Yeah, I combined a couple of questions here uh that were related from a couple of folks that have asked this question 8:41 and I think it's important to just briefly this is my answer will be similar to the previous answer. So all of those things will u be similar but it's I think it's important to talk about what baptism means and what we're 8:55 signifying by baptism. And this is something I mean if there's parents listening on the call I think that's important also for us to consider. If you as a teenager were forced into baptism by your parents I think that is a really dangerous 9:14 precedent. It's something that you have to be careful to re-examine your life. If you're saying like, okay, I was forced to do this because the elders or in my church or my parents forced me to do this, that may have been a mistake. I 9:29 don't think any person should be forced to be baptized. But I think as teens, we must desire to be baptized. And I think uh as a parent of teenagers, I want to encourage my children. I don't want to force them, but I want to encourage them to consider 9:45 what baptism is and why they should be baptized and why they should follow a step of obedience. So, if your parents are strongly encouraging you to get baptized, that's not them forcing you. But if they force you against your will, 9:55 saying you you you should be baptized, the danger with that is you think you're saved and you think you've given your life to Jesus and they think that you've given your your life to Jesus and you may not have actually given your life to 10:07 Jesus. And this may be the testimony, the honest testimony of this young brother, young sister who wrote this question to say, I've taken baptism, but I realized that I didn't really know what baptism meant. I just did it 10:21 because my parents forced me to. And I'm committing sins knowingly, and I'm enjoying those sins. And I appreciate the honesty of this question because it tells me that the person has finally come to a place that you young brother or young sister have 10:36 come to a place of honesty. saying, "I'm struggling. I'm not taking comfort in the fact that I'm baptized. In fact, my baptism may have been meaningless." What does baptism signify? Baptism signifies, like I said earlier, it's 10:50 just me saying, "I'm turning around from sin. I want to be a cat now. I don't want to be a pig anymore. I want to join." And I've often used this example. I want to enroll in the school of Jesus Christ. And Jesus will help me. Even if 11:05 I make a mistake, he will not cast me out and I can run back to him. But I don't want to ever drop out. I want to follow Jesus. As we sing in that song, the world behind me, the cross before me. I don't want to follow the 11:17 way of the world. I might slip up and accidentally fall into sin and follow that way of the world, but I want to run back and turn back to the cross. And so that's what you're testifying to baptism is saying. I'm done with that old way 11:30 that enjoyed sin, that old life of mine that enjoyed sin, wallowing in sin and living in sin. And I want to follow Jesus. And I want this new life that does not enjoy sin. That may fall into sin still, but does not enjoy it, but is eager to repent 11:47 every time I fall into sin and wants to grow more and more into an overcoming life where I don't sin anymore. So dear young brother and sister, I think perhaps it's possible as I read this question that you did not understand the meaning of 12:03 baptism when you took baptism. But that's okay. It's it's not too late to understand it now and understand the the realization of what I should have been testifying to when I took baptism. And the Lord will honor that. I'm not saying 12:17 you need to get baptized again, but the most important thing is for you to understand that you need to that the Lord will accept you if you run back to him. If you if you run back with a spirit of repentance, if with a desire 12:30 to say, "I will never sin again." And then when it comes to your testimony with others and what it means to break bread, this is what the Bible says. Actually, we won't turn there, but I'll tell you in in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 12:44 it talks about the breaking of bread and it says each of us must examine ourselves. It is not just the things we testify to when we baptize on three things primarily. One is we remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. The 12:56 body that was broken for us, the blood that was shed for us, uh, and his forgiveness of our sins. The second thing it says in 1 Corinthians 11 is that we examine ourselves to make sure and judge ourselves that we are also 13:11 caring about that dying of Jesus in ourselves. What does that mean in simple terms? That means that Lord, I want to examine myself and make sure that I there is no sin in me that I have not repented of. That convict me. I want you 13:23 to be convict me of anything that's in my life. I want to examine myself of anything that's displeasing to you. and I want that to be put to death so that the life of Jesus might come out through me. So that's the second thing we're 13:35 testifying to when we break bread. And the third thing it says in 1 Corinthians 10 that we partake of it as one bread as signifying one body. That's in the previous chapter. And what that means is I'm sharing it together with other 13:50 members of the body of Christ in my church and I'm saying I'm united with you in this regard. But it's that second part which I want to focus on which is to say what we must be careful if we're baptized and we're just partaking of the 14:04 bread loosely. It's a dangerous thing. Even as a teenager if you've been baptized examine yourself to say whether it can be said that there is no sin Lord that I'm conscious of. I am willing to please convict me heavenly father of any 14:20 sin and I'm willing to repent and I don't want to sin anymore. And with that attitude, I want to partake of this bread. Not because I'm perfect, but because I want to be quick to repent and I want to be quick to ask for your help 14:33 to lead an overcoming life tomorrow. So, as I said earlier, um it's great that you've come to this point of honesty. And yes, God will absolutely accept you. He does not cast out those who run to him. Those who run to him in humility. 14:48 There's only one person that God resists. That's a proud person. It says God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. So if you run back to God with humility, it doesn't matter what sins. You could be a murderer, a serial 15:01 rapist, you could be the worst person in the world. And you might feel like that right now based on the previous question and this question. He will abundantly pardon if you come back to him and he will absolutely accept you. And with 15:14 that with his righteousness now imparted onto you and him washing your sins in his blood with that attitude. Yes, that's the attitude in which you can testify to baptism. That's the attitude in which you can break bread with your 15:29 brothers and sisters in the church. >> So the next question is I have a desire to live an overcoming life but sin and especially sexual sin is very attractive. How can I overcome this? >> Yes, this is a 15:49 uh struggle for most young people uh young men especially. Um I want to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 which talks about this very sin. In 1 Corinthians uh chapter 6 in the last part of this chapter it actually 16:07 talks about uh sexual sin. Uh it says in verse 18, "Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body." And this is what sexual sin, whether it's in your mind, in your heart, with 16:25 your hands, with your body, you are sinning against your own body. And verse 19 says, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have from God? This message, this this verse is for believers, for those 16:38 who've given their life to Jesus. If you've given your life to Jesus, it is now the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's God's residence. Your your body is God's house. And verse 20, which is a powerful verse that says uh actually the end of verse 19 says, 16:57 whom you have from God that you are not your own. This is an important verse for all of us to remember. When we've given our lives to Jesus, we are no longer own our uh own. And verse 20, for you have been bought with a price. Therefore, GL 17:11 glorify God in your body. So, it's important to remind ourselves when and this has helped me a lot to remind myself that now that I've given my life to Jesus, I my body, my hands, my mind, my eyes, they don't belong to me anymore. I've 17:31 been bought with a price. God has paid a billion dollar price much much more than that with his blood with his precious blood he's bought me and he said these eyes's eyes are now the eyes of Christ your hands they're my hands now 17:50 and that must put a reverent fear in me to say okay I it doesn't belong to me on me I need to be careful about it do you ever just go back to Or do do you ever go to a neighbor's house or to a friend's house and just walk in and 18:05 start taking things and grabbing things and uh using their their their property? No, you wouldn't do that because you know it belongs to them. And in the same way you now, if you've given your life to Jesus, I think many of us don't realize it 18:23 because we think our hands and our eyes belong to ourselves and we say like, "Oh yeah, I can do what I want with it." And we don't have that fear of God. But if we truly have that fear of God to say, "My eyes, they no longer belong to me. 18:35 They belong to God. I need to ask God's permission to use these eyes. I need to ask God's permission to use these hands. I need to ask God's permission to say, is it okay if I can use your eyes which now belong to you to do this to go to 18:52 this website or to go to do this on my phone?" And so develop that habit, young people, of reminding yourselves that your body is no longer your own. And and if you've really been gripped with the fear of God, you will remind yourself 19:08 that that your body belongs to God. And your body, you can't do with it as you please anymore. You need to ask permission from the Lord. And as it comes to overcoming sin, one of the things that's really 19:25 liberated me, these sins of lusting of the eyes are liberated me in my younger days was the realization that what I wanted, what I really sought after was not just to be an overcomer of the sin. Overcoming the sin was just a means to 19:43 an end. I don't want to overcome the sin so that I can say I overcame the sin. What I was really after was fellowship with my heavenly father. I wanted to be with God. There's a verse in Psalm 16 which says in the Lord's presence is fullness of 20:00 joy. And I had experienced that when I gave my life to Jesus and I had experienced that from time to time and I wanted to never leave that. And that same verse says at his right hand are pleasures forever more. And that spoke to me as well to say Jesus in 20:16 your presence Lord in your presence there are at your right hand are pleasures forever more which means this pleasure that I'm seeking is so small compared to the pleasure that you have to offer me. In fact you created this pleasure. The devil has 20:33 perverted it and twisted it and taken it outside of the context of marriage. But you created this pleasure. And if you created this pleasure, you means the pleasure that you have to offer in your right hand is so much more. The pleasure 20:46 that I can experience of being with you is so much more than this. And that really gripped me to a point where I said really what I want to be after is being with God. And I don't want even anything to break that connection with 20:59 God. I don't want anything like a like a light switch or like a electrical wire that connects a a lamp. I don't want anything to cut that wire and the light to go off. And so I'll be very careful to insulate it and protect it and do all 21:16 kinds of means. Keep my phone far away from me, keep my laptop far away from me because I don't and wrap it up and insulate it and protect it so that protect my relationship with God and that connection. And it might be okay. You may say it's 21:32 okay to not insulate it. Even if the copper is a little bit exposed, it still works, you know, but it's still putting it at risk that something might cut it and something might come in the way. And so I want to be careful with anything that 21:47 would break that relationship with God. Not just sexual sin, but it could be losing my temper. It could be an attitude of irritation. But when I was gripped with the thought that I wanted to be with my heavenly father at all 21:59 times, then it made me and that it made him sad that sin broke that connection between me and him. Then I was much much more careful to say, "Lord, the reason I want to be an overcomer of sin, of the lust of the eyes, or the lust of the flesh, even 22:18 with its great attraction, is because I want to be with you and I want to be in your presence at all times." And that's really what I'm after. And young teens, make that your goal. Don't make your goal overcoming sin. Make your goal 22:33 being in God's presence at all times, being with your heavenly father in your spirit at all times. And that's will really transform your life. And then victory sort of just comes automatically when you're gripped with that. And your 22:47 desire, you ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit to be an overcomer to keep you in his presence. It it became much easier after that. The things of this world grew strangely dim for me as a result of saying I want to be in the 23:01 Lord's presence at all times. Amen. >> The next question, God's will and purpose. How how do I know God's will in relation to my career and my future? >> Yes, God's will is 23:19 there's a few verses that talk about God's will. One of my favorites is Romans chapter 12 verse one and two which says um I urge you brothers by the mercies of God to present yourself your bodies a 23:37 living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed to the world but by the trans but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is and this is a good 23:53 formula for God's will is Romans 12:1 and2 remember this always the Lord has a desire for me to present myself as a living holy sacrifice every single day he to give my every single day I want to wake up and say Lord I want to offer myself to you do with me 24:12 as you please and every single day I want to be verse two I want to be a little less conformed to the world to what my friends in the world are telling me to do or the way of this world is telling me to do and I want to be 24:23 transformed into a little more of your likeness. And if I am focused on doing that, then the Lord is saying you will prove my will for you. So if your will is if you if you're wondering what should I do with my job or what should I 24:39 do uh who am I going to marry when I grow up or which college should I go to? Well, contrary to what you think, proving God's will starts with this. Start with offering your body as a living sacrifice, not conforming to the world. 24:57 Be transformed in your way of thinking. And then I truly believe in a supernatural way. The Lord will give you peace about whatever decision you ask him for if you ask according to his will. And so these are things which talk 25:12 when the Bible talks about God's will, what is God's will? It doesn't tell you, oh, God's will is for you to do X, Y, and Z with your college life or to do X, Y, and Z with your uh work life when you start working with your career. It talks 25:24 about the attitude of your heart. There's another verse which says in everything give thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5, in everything give thanks for this is God's will. So, if the Lord sees that you have an attitude of uh and there's 25:38 another verse which says flee sexual immorality, for that is God's will. So you can see where when it talks about god's will in your life it's talking about being transformed into his likeness not being conformed to the world giving 25:54 thanks in your situation and these are good practices for us to develop with teenagers regardless of what you're going through uh regardless if it's a difficult time exam time difficult friendships losing friendships just say 26:06 give thanks to the Lord and say Lord you're in control of my circumstance I want to give thanks to you because you've said that is your will for me. And if I do that and if I'm transformed into uh by the renewing of my mind, not 26:18 conformed to the world, I believe what I've experienced is the Lord has given me peace about earthly decisions cuz his will for me is in the heavenly to be transformed into his image. But then he cares. He says, "Seek seek 26:33 God's kingdom first." Matthew 6:33. If I seek God's kingdom first, all of these things will be added. So God's will for me is to seek his kingdom first to be transformed into his likeness and then all of these things will be added and 26:44 then I can and I I have personally experienced a peace that the Lord gives me when I have a question about an earthly decision. But it's not a peace because I'm seeking that in itself but it's peace that came because I was 26:56 seeking God's kingdom first and then this thing was added and the Lord gave me a piece of saying this is the way you go. Don't and then you don't have to worry about oh am I making a mistake or not making a mistake. If you are seeking 27:09 God's kingdom first, if you are a disciple that is eager to repent when the Lord convicts you of sin, if you're giving thanks in all situations, you can be sure that you will not make a mistake in in decisions about your uh future, 27:24 about your career because you're consulting God and you're seeking to be to have a clear conscience and to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and that's the way you will prove God's will. >> Here's my next question. I am not 27:37 talented or smart. Why did God create me? What is my purpose? >> It's a great question and again a lie that is often I don't know how this comes into 27:52 churches or homes that God only uses talented or smart people. In fact, I would say being talented or smart is a handicap that may prevent from you from God using you because God is looking to use weak, untalented and 28:12 foolish people. And this is how Jesus picked his disciples. He didn't pick the most talented people, the smartest people of that time. He picked weak, defeated, helpless people who are not not talented and not smart. And there's a verse I want to encourage 28:27 you young brother, young sister who ask this question. 1 Corinthians 1 27-29. But God has chosen 1 Corinthians 1 Corinthians 1:27-29. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things 28:46 of the world to shame the things which are strong. and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen so that he might nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God. So dear young brother, young sister, I 29:04 want to say that God created you in his image. Doesn't matter what your talents are or if you don't have intellectual wisdom. God has chosen you. untalented person who feels untalented or not smart. He has chosen you to shame wise 29:23 people. He's chosen you because you are weak. He's chosen you because you feel despised so that you can boast in God. And there's another verse I'll point to in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. This was 29:42 Paul's experience himself. Paul came to this experience himself. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says the latter part says my gras my grace is sufficient for you for my power is perfected in weakness mo most gladly therefore I will rather 29:59 boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me so if you feel like you have a weakness or you're not talented or you're not smart you're actually the perfect person for God to use the person who should be 30:13 concerned is the person who feels talented or smart cuz that person will struggle to boast in that weakness. The Bible says like Paul says here, the power of Christ will dwell in the one who's willing to boast in their weakness. And the power of God is 30:31 perfected in the one who's weak because they don't have any strength on their own to offer to God. So they have zero to offer to God. So they come to God, you're able to come to God and say, "Lord, I have nothing to offer." So your 30:41 power can be perfected in me. your life can be perfected in me. It doesn't mean that God will now give you talents or give you a bunch of intellectual wisdom to uh intellectual knowledge. But it means that he will give you his life. He 30:56 will give you his life. He will what does that mean? What does his life mean? He will he can fill you with the Holy Spirit. You can have the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You will be more joyful. You'll be more loving. You'll be more 31:07 peaceful. You'll be more gentle. You'll be more you'll be more obedient to your parents. You'll be full of self-control. And when you are overflowing with that life, then God's power is perfected in you. And then you will have a fragrance of 31:21 the life of Jesus that can overflow to others who smell that fragrance, who see in you. You can be a light because you don't have a grumbling and complaining attitude about the way the Lord made you. And you are willing to submit to 31:35 the parents he's given you. You're willing to grow in the fruit of the spirit. And people will say, "Hey, I want something." that person, they don't seem very talented, not very smart, but they're content. They're content with 31:45 their weaknesses. Like the next verse is 2 Corinthians 12 uh 10. You're content because of what God is able to do in your weakness and the way he's able to perfect his power in your weakness. So don't believe the lie that you need to 32:01 be talented or smart to be used by God. And if you feel like a talented or smart person, you're in a dangerous place because you actually have a handicap that you need to overcome because you need to come to a point where you can 32:12 boast in your weakness. So I praise God that uh you have asked this question young brother, young sister, but I want to encourage you and reinstill the truth in you that the Lord chooses the weak things of this world, the base things of this world, 32:30 the despised things of this world, the ones who are weak to perfect his power. And that is your purpose for God's power to be perfected in you. for the image to for you to be conformed to the image of Christ, for you to be 32:46 hidden and for him to be glorified. And you are in a perfect position for his purpose to be fulfilled because you realize that you are weak, but maybe you didn't know God's purpose until now. Amen. >> How can I hear from God during a time of 33:03 prayer? >> Yeah, this is a also a really good practical question. Um I I believe in in our new covenant times um you know many people in the old covenant heard the audible prophets heard the audible voice of God. 33:22 Uh some people may hear that uh today as well in some supernatural way. So I'm not discounting that but I question that because I believe in the new covenant we have something far better than the audible voice of God. I'm not impressed 33:35 by anybody who tells me hey they actually heard the physical voice of God. It doesn't impress me. It tells me that perhaps they are an old covenant Christian. They're operating in the Old Testament. Maybe they're true. I'm not 33:48 discounting it. Maybe it's maybe it's false. A lot of times people tend to exaggerate these things. But in the New Covenant, we have God in our heart. We have the Holy Spirit in our heart. So we don't need to hear a voice on the 34:00 outside. In fact, it may be a warning sign. If we're hearing a voice on the outside, it means perhaps God's not in our heart. Because if God was in our heart, we'd hear the voice inside us. If the Holy Spirit is in our in our heart, 34:11 we don't need to hear the audible voice. So when when Jesus came and went back to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to to be um our helper. And we must seek every day to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to hear his voice. And the thing that's 34:29 helped me practically is to instill the word of God in my in my heart. I have uh spent many years just reading the word of God. Not not for the sake of just reading it because my parents told me to do it, but in recent times I've read the 34:43 word of God to say, "Lord, I want you to speak something from this chapter that will that I can apply to my life today." And as I've done that for a period of years and we have many memory verses that we're memorizing as well. 35:00 The Lord has honored the desire of my heart and planted some of those words in my heart. I may have read something five years ago and then reread it again three years ago and then today when I'm seeking the Lord or praying the Lord will bring that 35:17 verse back to my memory and say that's a word for you today. And that's a very practical way in which I feel that God has spoken to me. But it doesn't come it doesn't come in some magic way. I I have to have done the diligence of saying I 35:33 am going to meditate on God's word like he has asked me to do. I am going to store his word in my heart. I'm going to take the effort to say Lord I want to read your word. I I want it will bless me today but more importantly Lord I 35:47 know that it will bless me five years from now. will bring some of these things back to my memory. And that's been a very practical way when I've been praying where the Lord has brought a verse back to me. And I can tell you 101 35:59 15 years ago when I didn't study the Bible as much, I didn't have as much of a uh treasure chest to pull from. So maybe God spoke to me, but he spoke to me with very small things. But now I have a much bigger treasure chest 36:11 because I've been meditating on God's word a lot more. And he brings saying, "Okay, this is your treasure for today." And so I've personally experienced that where the Lord speaks to me from his word, from some word that I don't even 36:23 have to have my Bible, but it reminds me of something that I've read. Even as I'm answering these questions, believe it or not, the Lord brings a word back to my heart that I remember a verse and then I'll look it up, but it's because I've 36:34 been meditating. So as you're praying uh as you're developing the habit of prayer, develop the habit of reading the Bible and meditating on God's word so that uh you can hear from God in a time of prayer. And then when you hear from 36:48 God, it is not a I believe that the main objective that the Lord wants to speak to me is to point out something in my life where I'm not like Christ and to invite me higher. Uh this is a verse 37:06 that spoke to me. I just again because that I'm reminded of this verse. Wasn't planning to share this, but it came to my mind in Habacook chapter 2. Habacook is probably the rarest book in the Bible. Almost nobody quotes from this 37:19 book. Habacook chapter 2, it's in the Old Testament towards the end of the Old Testament before Zephaniah uh the fourth or fifth last book in the Old Testament. Habacook chapter 2 verse one says, "I will stand on my guard post 37:33 and station myself on the rampart. I will keep watch to see what the Lord will speak to Here's a picture of the man of God saying, "I'm going to be on my God porch." Think of you early in the morning listening to God saying, "I want 37:46 to listen to what you would speak to me and how I may reply when I am reproved." And this verse tells me that the prophet of God here and us in the new covenant must have an eagerness to say, "Lord, I'm willing. I want to have an eagerness 38:04 to be reproved. I want to have an eagerness for you to correct me and to show me an area in my life in which I am not following you as I can as I should be following you. Not that it will bring me down, but it will be an invitation 38:21 for me to come up higher. It'll be an invitation. And why will I ever turn down? An invitation to be more like Christ tomorrow than I am today. And so when you hear that correction either from your parents or from uh God during 38:34 your time of prayer, don't don't feel condemned by it because see it as an invitation to come up higher. God's not going to condemn you and saying, "See it. You're again sinning and you're again falling into the sin." No, he's the one who's going 38:47 to say, "Let me point out to you something. It's going to be painful, but I'm going to point out to you something that displeased me and I'm inviting you to come up higher." And these are things that I look forward to now when I pray 38:59 to the Lord. I say, "Lord, show me something in my life that is displeasing to you through your word to bringing your word back to me." And then uh the Lord has pointed that out consistently. Almost every day the Lord points out 39:12 something. Last verse I'll say here is um Isaiah 50:4. Another verse that uh comes to mind. Uh Isaiah 50:4. The last part says, "He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my year to listen as a disciple. Young brothers and young 39:28 sisters, remember this when you wake up every day. It is not your alarm clock that woke you up. It's not the neighbor's dog that woke you up. It is God who's waking you up every day. And remember, not that he don't just thank 39:44 him for waking you up. Remember the reason he's waking up. He's waking you up to listen with the ear of a disciple. And then the first part of that verse is to give you the tongue of the disciple so that you can encourage a weary one 39:56 with the word. So sometimes as the Lord convicts you, he he may also give you an encouraging word for somebody else, for another friend in school. So pay attention to what the Lord will speak to you. But it's not an audible voice. It's 40:08 a voice in it's it's just a thought that comes into your mind based on you opening up your heart to saying, "Lord, speak to me from things I may be reading in the scripture today." things that I may be praying about and the Lord will 40:22 put a thought into your mind. And that's the only practical way I can explain the Lord speaking to me in a time of prayer is the thought coming into my mind through the Holy Spirit, which I believe is through the Holy Spirit. It's not 40:33 something more magical than that or it's not like I feel a tremor in my spine or anything like that. Uh but it's a word that is consistent with calling me up higher or providing an encouragement to another one from God's own word that 40:48 called me up higher. So I hope that answered the question as best as I could. >> So on the topic of prayer still I turn to God in times of difficulty but when things are easy I often stumble and fall. How can I overcome this? 41:04 Yeah, this is a great question and I think I will turn this question a little bit on its head. I think every day without God is a day of difficulty. We need to redefine what we call difficulty. We think of difficulty as 41:22 exam time or uh difficult friendship or interview time or some challenge we're dealing with and we think that's a difficult time and we must call to God. And it's great. The Lord will use circumstances in our life for us to call 41:36 out to him. But we must be careful about what we think are things that are easy. What is an easy day? is an easy day, one where I can go about uh my life without God. 41:55 The Bible says Jesus said, "Abide in me." In John 15:5, he says, "Abide in me as I am the vine and you are the branches. Abide in me for apart from me, you can do nothing." That's what John 15:5 says. And if I'm really seeing that 42:11 apart from Jesus, I can do nothing then no day is easy without Jesus. But yet like the verse I shared earlier Matthew 11:28 verse 30 says if I am relying on Jesus every single day then 42:29 every day is easy. So, uh, young brother and young sister, develop the habit of crying out to God every single day. Not defining difficulty and easy based on what your earthly circum circumstance is, but 42:47 define a difficult day as any day that I do not cry out to Jesus will be a difficult day. And that's why you're stumbling and falling. And that's why you're having something that is going to result in far greater difficulty for you 42:59 than your earthly circumstance. And so this is a great reminder and this is not I'm not saying this uh as someone I I struggle with this myself all the time. I have to remind myself to operate in the heavenly to say Lord I need you 43:14 today. I don't have any great earthly trial today, but I need you if I'm going to be able to love my wife or encourage my wife or to be encouragement to my children or to uh build them up or even if I'm just going to be able to get 43:29 through life today to drive on the road. I want to boast in my weakness and have your power perfect my weakness. I can't even drive without you. I can't even do my work without you. Even if I I even if I even if my boss is not upset, I I 43:42 still can't do my work without you. to have that attitude that I can't do a single thing in my life even the thing that I think I'm good at to have that attitude of the previous question that we heard where I'm saying I'm not 43:53 talented I'm not smart I can't do anything on my own all the time and if I have that attitude of helpless dependence regardless of my earthly circumstance every single day develop the habit of crying out to the Lord and to ask him to 44:09 fill you with the Holy Spirit um they says in Hebrews chapter 2 uh chapter 12 11 I believe it says the one who's trained by discipline will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness and so we want to discipline ourselves and 44:25 yield ourselves to the discipline of the Lord to say as a result of me realizing I fall in what I call easy times I want to practice crying out to the Lord every single day and I've it's been my personal experience that every day that 44:37 I've cried out to the Lord in helpless dependence not as a formula but as an attitude of the heart I believe he's preserved me from falling on those days. And there's something atomic of the day. The Bible even talks about it. Today is 44:50 the day of salvation. Therefore, hear his voice. It talks about the day and something happens maybe when we sleep and when we wake up that our spirit needs to be renewed. And if we're not careful, if we just wake up like it's 45:02 any other normal day, we will drift. We will drift through the conforming of the world. We pick up our phone. What's the first thing we grab for? These are things we need to examine ourselves to say the first thing I want to grab on to 45:14 Lord is you. The first thing and it may not mean you may not have time to read your Bible immediately. You can read it later on in the day or you don't even be legalistic about it or condemn yourself if you didn't read it on a particular 45:27 day. As long as you have a desire to read it, the most important thing is for you even while you're lying down in bed to cry out to the Lord and say, "Lord, I need you. I need you today." Doesn't matter whether this day is going to be 45:38 easy or difficult from an earthly perspective. It is going to be difficult. Not only difficult, it's going to be impossible without you. And I will stumble and fall if I don't cry out to you today. So that's the attitude 45:51 I've practiced and I believe and the days where I've done that in humility. The Bible says pride goes before a fall. And pride can sneak in very easily in these complacent times where I said, "Okay, yeah, I don't need God today." 46:06 God's just an umbrella. For many of you, God's just an umbrella when it rains outside as opposed to or a rain coat you put on when it's raining outside. And God says, "No, I want to be your clothing all the all the time." 46:19 Uh there's a verse in Peter which says, "Clothe yourselves with humility." 1 Peter 5, I believe, which says, "Clothe yourselves with humility." We want to be clothed all the time with humility. And if we're clothed with humility, then we 46:30 will be crying out to the Lord like Jesus did uh in dependence on the heavenly father at all times. Crying out to Jesus at all times to with an attitude of apart from you, I can do nothing. Amen. >> So here we are. So when I ask for 46:46 something like being able to do well in my exams, why is it that God sometimes doesn't answer? The Bible says if I ask anything according to God's will, he hears me and I have my request. So, um I mean, first of all, God's not going to answer your 47:05 question. God's not a magic genie who's going to answer your question or give you your wish. If you didn't spend the time to study uh for your exam, God's not going to answer uh your question and magically that God would be a very 47:19 unfair God to reward laziness. uh he does reward diligence and so if you diligently studied for your exam and you ask him to do well in your exam I believe he will help you to do well in your exam to the best of your ability to 47:31 the best of your intellectual ability and so uh it's a common mistake we think that God is some sort of magic genie that will uh just provide me whatever I ask for the same thing even with the Bible like I talked about earlier if I 47:45 don't spend the time studying the word of God how can God bring his word to me uh he he's not going to be able to do that but there's There's one important thing I'll mention in this context which is the will of God. It is important as we grow as Christians 48:01 to realize that God does not want us to be babies or toddlers or children but to grow up as sons and daughters. And the difference between a child a child is obsessed with toys and so they ask God for toys. They ask their father for 48:16 toys. So when the father comes back they want the toy that's in the father's hand. But as you grow up into a son and becoming a son or a daughter, you're content to just say, "I just want to hang out with my father. That's all I 48:27 want. The toys are secondary. If I get a toy, that's okay." And so it's important when we pray these prayers to say, "Lord, the most important thing according to your will is for me to be with you, to me to be become more like 48:40 you." And then all of these other things are extra. If you didn't answer it, I know there's a good reason why you're not answering that question. Maybe there's like a father taking away a pair of scissors from a child or a knife from 48:52 a child saying, "No, I want to teach you something from this. This is not this is not something that's good for you." Or you need to take this medicine that's maybe bitter. And you say, "No, no, I don't want to take this medicine. Why 49:03 doesn't he answer my prayer when I ask him to uh not give me this medicine?" But God is God is after something far more greater in your life. So, it's important for us to change our understanding of God as not Santa Claus who's giving you your 49:19 gifts or a genie that's giving you the gifts you want, but as a loving father who I want to grow up and be a son or a daughter to and I want to be able to spend time with him and enjoy spending time with him more than and that's how I 49:32 want to change my uh prayers. So, I believe God answers every prayer that is according to his will and some of those prayers which are for earthly things, he says no, you don't need that right now. that's not according to my will right 49:43 now. And if you didn't spend time studying for your exam, then I can't reward that. It's not it's against my law to reward laziness. And so, we must change our prayers to be praying according to God's will. And God's will 49:55 is for us to be transformed into his likeness. Seek his kingdom first and then these other things will follow. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't be praying for our exams or praying. Yes, we should absolutely be praying for 50:03 that. But it's a secondary prayer to us praying to be transformed into his likeness and then he will answer according to his will and according to our preparation of our heart. >> Next question is I feel like praying only in secret. I prefer to be more 50:19 connected to God in secret rather than talking about it with my parents. Should I talk about my spiritual growth? >> Yeah, I think this is a a great question. I think the secret life of a Christian 50:37 is is a very important thing. I think it's great that the Lord is working you with you in your secret life and you don't have to contrive to talk about it to your parents out of obligation. But I think the life of a Christian is 50:56 not meant to be one that is just isolated between him and God or him and her and God. And so if God has started a work with you in your secret life, that's a beautiful thing. But God has also called us to be rivers of living water. And so we must be ones 51:14 as the Lord is uh ministering to us in secret. We must be ones that are overflowing. Overflowing to friends, but also overflowing to parents. And so I don't think it's necessary for you to talk to your parents about your spiritual 51:27 growth. But I think it is absolutely necessary for you to overflow for your spiritual life. If you are connected to God, if you're the Lord is transforming your life, it must naturally overflow to your parents. And what do I mean by 51:40 that? They will naturally see you helping out more in the home, being kinder to your siblings, being more joyful, being encouraging. Do you know your parents are in need of encouragement? So, replace the complaining attitude 51:56 that you have that is self-centered to saying, Lord, give me a word like I read in Isaiah 50:4. Lord, awaken me today and to listen to you so that I can have an encouraging word to encourage a weary one like my weary parents. Let me 52:09 encourage my parents. And so I think it is far more important for you for the secret life that you have your God with God to overflow into encouragement to others and into the life of Jesus being seen through your actions and your 52:24 deeds. You don't have to talk about the spiritual growth that you have. That might happen naturally as you're encouraging them, but that's something that you should see as the proof of your spiritual life. If not, your spiritual 52:35 life is meaningless. You're you may be just filling yourself with the Bible or with u uh religious thoughts or knowledge. That's not spiritual life. Spiritual life must overflow with the fruit of the spirit to others so that 52:47 others can enjoy that fruit. Starting with the ones in your own home like your parents. >> Here's the question. I get upset at my parents often. I don't want to hurt them. How can I overcome this? >> Yeah. I think the the fundamental 53:03 challenge with this is that we don't see our parents as the godappointed authority in our lives. If we see this, we wouldn't do this with if a policeman showed up in our house, if the president of America or the prime minister of India showed up in your 53:21 house, you wouldn't start yelling and screaming at them. Hopefully not. and or um if we saw if Jesus himself showed up in our house, we wouldn't get upset at him. Well, our parents uh whom God has appointed to be the role models of 53:39 Jesus, to be the God appointed authorities in our life. And so it's almost a act of rebellion or an act of it's a seed of rebellion that creeps in when we get upset at them because we are rejecting the notion that they are God's 53:53 appointed authority and we have lost that fear of God that they are the authority in our lives. So, this goes well. I've I feel like I've answered this question in my message already, which is to say, if I truly am willing 54:08 to submit to my parents even when they're wrong because God has appointed them and God is teaching me humility and teaching me spiritual growth like he taught Jesus. when I submit to imperfect authority like the way Jesus submitted 54:23 to imperfect authority to imperfect parents then uh I I I will not get upset and it'll be easier for me. So ask cry out to God for help to overcome your anger to overcome uh the temptation to get upset. This is 100% a problem with 54:41 you and not with your parents. 100% a problem with you uh and not with your parents, but 100% a pro a problem that God wants to fix and 100% a problem you can run to God with. And so uh remind yourself that your parents are God's 54:57 appointed authority. Whether they are right or wrong, they are God's appointed authority and you must respect them and you don't you do not have the right to get it upset at anyone, leave alone your parents. >> Next question. How can I overcome the 55:11 attachment of worldly friends that are dimming my fire for the Lord? >> Yeah, I think this I I've often picture this as a tug of war. If your friends are pulling you away from God, you need to you need to draw some strict boundaries 55:30 which says do not move the ancient boundaries. Right? Or your parents are telling you to cut off a friendship. There's a reason they're asking you to do that because they're having a bad influence on you. And if you sense that 55:40 a worldly friend is causing you to go away from the Lord, you need to put some distance between you and that friend. It doesn't mean you abandon them, but you need to draw some boundaries of saying like, "Sorry, I can't come to your 55:54 house. I can't put be in that situation with you. We can still hang out in limited situations, but I I just need to take a break or I need to be able to draw that line. And you might say, "No, but the Lord wants me to have a good influence on that person and 56:09 to uh I want to have a good influence on that person." And yes, that's a true statement, but it will not be a true statement if you do not have the spiritual maturity or the conviction or the discipline of the Lord to be able to win that tug of war. 56:24 If they are dimming your light, the command for you is to flee temptation. Not to hate them, but to flee temptation and to run away uh from the the temptations that may be associated with them. Don't make them the enemy, but 56:41 make them make the sin that they may be associated with the enemy that you want to fight. But the Lord's eventual goal is for us to be lights of the world and salt of the earth. We're not meant to be light that's hidden or salt that just 56:54 staying in the salt shaker. So we must seek the Lord as we're distancing ourselves. We must seek the Lord to say, "Lord, give me the maturity. Make me give me the consistency in my walk with God. Where I can be salt to this person 57:09 without compromising where I can be an influence with them. Where I can be merciful to them without uh compromising. I'll share one quick verse that has come to me often in recent times as I think about interactions with 57:26 people who are who have either fallen away or a bad influence. It's Jude Jude verse Jude chapter 1. Jude just has one chapter verse 22 and I'll read this from the New Living Translation. Jude 1:22 says 57:47 and 23, "You must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercies still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives." And 57:59 this is a good way we must interact with uh people who might have sins that are contaminating their lives to show mercy towards them at all times to be merciful in my attitude towards them at all times. But with great fear 58:13 that that sin that they have may contaminate my life and I want to be I want to I don't want to be polluted by that. So I can be merciful. I can pray for that person but I must be careful that their sins don't contaminate my 58:27 life uh while continuing to be merciful and pray for them. >> There is someone in my school who hates me and gossips about me constantly. I find it hard to forgive. How do I overcome this? >> Well, the way you overcome this is by 58:42 fixing your eyes on Jesus. Jesus was your free runner. You know who gossiped about? Who was gossiped about the most and who was hated the most? Maybe even in school was Jesus. And there's a perfect verse for this in Hebrews 58:56 chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3 says, let me switch back to the NASB. Hebrews 12:3 says, "Consider him, consider Jesus who endured such hostility by sinners 59:15 against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." So consider Jesus who is gossiped against, who was hated far worse than you were, and then cry out to him for help and say, "Lord, you are my perfect example. 59:30 You went through far worse than me. You will help me." And this will be your encouragement when you think about Jesus and how much he had to go through. if he could go through it and he can be a help to me. Hebrews says that because he was 59:45 tempted in all points as we are, he can be a sympathetic high priest who can intercede for me. So when I think about how much Jesus suffered unjustly, then it's far easier for me not to grow weary and say, "Lord, you can help me to 1:00:00 forgive." And we have to be careful about this idea of uh not forgiving. The the Bible is very clear that if we don't forgive others, God won't forgive our sins. So it's a dangerous path to go on. We may we may call ourselves believers. 1:00:14 But imagine getting to heaven and saying God saying sorry I can't forgive your sins because you did not forgive others. And so we must be quick. One of the things that we want to be immediate about is forgiving others. And we forgive others because he 1:00:28 has forgiven us. And here's the last thing I'll say about this, which is when you think about when I meditate on how much I've been forgiven, it's very easy for me to forgive forgive. And if you really look at how much you've let down God with 1:00:44 your life, you've done far worse than gossip in terms of the way you've sinned against God through disobedience, through the evils that I read about in 2 Timothy 3, through disobedience, through conceit, through boastful attitude, 1:00:59 through the lust of the eyes, through lust of the flesh. And if God has forgiven me so much, it should be so easy for me to forgive others. So it sometimes is a good reminder for us to go back to the Lord and think about what he did on the cross 1:01:14 of Calvary to forgive me and then it's very easy for me to forgive others. So two things I can remind myself of is what Christ did for me on Calvary and how Christ himself uh suffered much worse at the uh by the tongues and hands 1:01:28 of sinners and that way I will not grow weary. The next question is, I find myself seeking people's honor when I do things and when I pray. How can I overcome this? I find myself seeking people's honor when I do things and when I pray, 1:01:46 how can I overcome this? >> The Bible says in Galatians 1:10, if I'm seeking the approval of men, I cannot be a servant of Christ. And I've taken that as a law of my life to say if I am seeking somebody's approval, I can't 1:02:01 serve Christ. It's as simple as that. If I'm seeking the approval of someone, I cannot serve Christ. Uh the other verse I'll share in this regard is Matthew 6:1, which says beware, stay away. You know, you go around some 1:02:14 houses and says, "Beware of dog. Stay away from this. I want to have this fear of stay away. There's something here that's going to bite me." Matthew 6:1 says, "Beware. Stay away from practicing your righteousness before men to be 1:02:27 noticed by them. Otherwise, your you have no reward with your father in heaven. And the next verse says that if I do this, I have a reward in earth, which is what is my reward in earth that I got their approval and their blessing, 1:02:38 but I missed out on the reward in in heaven. And so, it's something that we must ask God for help with. Uh, you know, I struggle with this daily when I think about my boss's approval. I'm sure many of us struggle with what the elders 1:02:51 think about us, what our parents think about us. But if we see the word of God and we understand the fear of God that I cannot be a servant of God unless I abandon the approval of men and I want to only do 1:03:09 all things so that he may be glorified. I want to operate if my eyes are only on God and only on pleasing God and not distracted by what other people think then it's then it becomes very natural for me to just be uh praying to him and 1:03:25 talking to him uh and seeking to please only him and seeking to the the strength that he provides to serve him and to speak words that are from him. 1 Peter 4:11, I'll share this verse quickly, says, "Whoever speaks is to do so as one 1:03:43 who's speaking the utterance of God. Whoever serves to do so as one who's serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all thing God may be glorified." So if you're not seeking for God's strength to serve or God's 1:03:53 strength to speak his words, then God is not glorified by that. And so it's important for us to realize that our service must be and our words must only be to God. And we cannot be a servant of Christ if we're seeking the 1:04:10 approval of men. And so take this seriously as you would take a sign that says beware and have a true fear. I think part of the reason we are still struggling with this is because we don't see it as as big a sin as it is as big a 1:04:24 sin as adultery or murder. And if we treat it as seriously then the Lord will really liberate uh us from it. The next question. I am in a relationship with someone. So presumably this is a boy talking 1:04:42 about a girl. I am in a relationship with someone. She is very supportive and kind and loving. She doesn't want to leave me. Is it okay for me to continue in this relationship? I appreciate the honesty of this question and it's a certainly a 1:04:59 challenge for many of you teens with the attraction to the opposite gender uh boys to girls, girls to boys. This is uh though I'll say at the outset that this attraction is created by God. The 1:05:17 attraction between a boy and a girl and a girl and a boy. It's important for you to realize that there is nothing wrong with that attraction. The attraction is not a sin. It is created by God. It was absolutely 100% created by God. But it 1:05:31 was created by God for a purpose to be fulfilled in a purpose and not to be uh something that I indulge myself with or I let myself go. I must exercise self-control in that regard. So the first thing at the outset I would say is 1:05:45 don't condemn yourself. If you're a boy and you're attracted to a young girl, don't condemn yourself because of her looks. God created that attraction based on a certain he's created us individually to have a certain attraction to certain types of looks and 1:06:00 each of us the type of girl I might be attracted to or the type of I'm attracted to my wife and I and others may not be attracted to her and that's perfectly okay. God has created that attraction in in my eyes. Um and so I want to at the outset say do 1:06:17 not condemn yourself over the attraction but how you act on that attraction is is important and I think there's a lot of foolishness in youth where we over we have not exercised self-control and we have become lovers of self and lovers of 1:06:34 pleasure and indulge ourselves and we have not treated ourselves like I said earlier where our body belongs to God and say and our mind belongs to God and we've not asked God's permission should I be doing this? So, the first thing I'd 1:06:46 say at the outset is if you're a teenager, you're probably under your parents authority. So, first of all, go check with them. If if you if your parents are your authority, uh I I talk to them about this or if you're not 1:07:04 comfortable talking with them about it and if you think that they would not approve of this relationship, then you have your answer already. If your parents you're under your parents authority and if they will not approve 1:07:15 of this relationship then you would be sitting by not submitting to them by disobeying what you know would be their intent and that would be proved by your inability to talk to them but if you're comfortable talking to them maybe you 1:07:27 can have an honest conversation about it with them the sec so I think obedience to parents is far more important than a girl who's supporting and kind and loving she may be supporting kind and loving all of those things going to be good things But 1:07:41 you don't want to be guilty of disobedience and not submitting to your parents in that regard. The other thing I'd say is there is a danger in exclusivity at a young age of being exclusive with one person at a young age. Yes, the attraction is not a sin, 1:07:57 but acting on it and creating an exclusive uh acting on that infatuation and creating an exclusive relationship is a very very dangerous thing because if that person is not the person you end up marrying, you will have regret about that 1:08:14 relationship and you will have lifelong regret perhaps of like, man, I wasted my time with that and that was not meant for me. And even if she is the person that you end up marrying and you might think as a teenager, keep in mind that your teenage 1:08:29 years are not the years where you will have the maturity to even make that decision. You are absolutely you're young and you're foolish and this is the years when the Lord wants to put his yoke on you and to have you have your 1:08:41 face in the dust. And so it's an important thing to put it's an important thing to learn self-control to be willing to put that on the altar and say Lord if that person is for me you will give it back to me just like Abraham put Isaac on the altar 1:08:56 be willing to and not hold on to it let go to it and say Lord if it is for me there's a reserve tag on it you will give it back to me I don't need to control it and if it's not for me please burn it up because I don't want anything 1:09:09 but your will. So these are important things to consider as we uh obedience to parents. Um not being exclusive in a relationship in our teenage years. It's a very very dangerous thing. But most most importantly, I come back to the outset. 1:09:25 Don't condemn yourself over the attraction. Put it in the altar, but uh uh say to the Lord, Lord, yes, you know, I have these feelings and for this one person, I have this attraction and but I'm putting it on the altar for you. do 1:09:39 with it as you please. Amen. >> Yeah, let's just read. They all very similar questions. So, I'll answer them all in one shot. >> All right. Personal. So, let's go. Uh, I waste my time on social media. I try to avoid it, but I fail constantly. My 1:09:57 spiritual life is dry and often distracted as a result. How can I overcome this? So, that's a question on social media. Is it okay to participate in dances in school or college? Is listening to a Christian rap song a sin? 1:10:13 Is it a sin to watch movies? Yeah. And that's it. >> Okay. >> So, movies, rap song, dances, social media. >> So, let me start start actually with the last three that's a little bit easier for me to answer and then we'll get to 1:10:25 the social media thing which is I think is a little bit more relevant relevant to a a battle. So I actually I actually laugh a little bit when I see these because I ask these same questions when I was young and uh it's a funny question 1:10:39 for me to when I hear questions that says is it a sin to do x y and z and um the reason I say that is I've now realized from my walk with God that the my the the 1:10:57 walking with Christ is a life of liberty. It's not a life of enslavement to new laws of what I can or can't do. This is what uh if you have time read 2 Corinthians 3. It talks about the spirit of the letter kills. And if we're not careful, even in a new 1:11:16 covenant church, and if we're not careful, even parents too sometimes strugg struggle with this. We can create a new set of new covenant laws that say, "Okay, this is sin, this is not sin, this is sin, this is not sin." But 1:11:28 that's not the calling of the new covenant. The new covenant is one of life and liberty where the spirit where we're led by the Holy Spirit. Now, where the scripture is clear about certain things that like anger is a sin, lust of 1:11:39 the eyes is a sin, we know those are sins, but the scripture is not clear on many other things. And that's why I must seek the power of the Holy Spirit and seek the motive of why I'm doing certain things. And so I'm not eager to answer 1:11:52 questions which say are these sins or are they not sins? It may be sin for you. For the one there's a verse in James 4 which says for the one who knows the right thing to do but doesn't do it. For him it is sin. And there's another verse in Romans 12 1:12:07 which says happy is the one who doesn't condemn himself over what he approves. And so if you take these two verses together, if you know in your heart, your conscience is pricking you that this is the wrong thing for you to do, 1:12:17 then it is sin for you. And the first evidence of that is going back to the theme of my message is does it go against what your parents want you to do? Can I do it without arguing and complaining or disputing with them and 1:12:31 without grumbling with them? So first thing I would say for all three of these questions 16, 17 and 18 is ask your parents what do they think of it and then obey whatever they think of it. Don't don't get into an argument uh 1:12:46 about it and if they permit you then at the same time don't just go by what they say. I mean examine it in your uh in your own uh with your own conscience. There are things the things about certain dances are they're immodest 1:13:01 things about certain dances in Indian culture is they're a form of idolatry. So we need to examine ourselves in terms of what they are. At the same time we hear that David danced before the Lord. So there are certain dances which are 1:13:13 are modest as well and I think are perfectly okay to participate in if your parents approve of it. Same thing with a Christian rap song. The main purpose of Christian songs is to praise God. Am I able to am I able to praise God and 1:13:27 glorify God and not draw attention to myself or is the music drawing attention to itself or is it just pure entertainment for me? So those are the questions we must ask ourselves after we've examined whether my parents are 1:13:38 okay with it. Uh I think some of the some of some songs including maybe even a Christian rap song could be profitable and could be uh building up and encouraging but it there are some which are absolutely useless and a waste of 1:13:51 time. 90% of them probably are. So I think we need to examine ourselves of examine the content and the motive of why we're doing it. Are we doing it truly to praise God or we doing it for entertainment? And the same thing with 1:14:03 movies. There there are most movies today have content in it which is not glorifying to God. Either sexual content, content that promotes love that is not a uh divine love that the Lord wants to see between husband and wife. 1:14:19 uh uh violence, extreme gratus violence, but there's also movies that are healthy and uh I I think again something check with your parents. Are you okay? A good question to ask is are you okay watching that movie with your parents? If you can 1:14:33 watch it with your parents, it's probably a good movie. It's not probably not a sin to watch that movie with your parents. Okay. So then lastly going back to the social media question. This is something that I want to just go back to the 1:14:46 earlier question that I answered which is to remind ourselves that those hands and those eyes belong to the Lord and I want to glorify him. It may not be it may not seem sinful for me to be using those apps but if they're becoming an 1:15:00 idol in my life or if I'm wasting time with it then it's obvious that I have not given my hands and my eyes as if they belong to the lords and I'm not and this is something I've you know I have a couple of social media I have LinkedIn 1:15:14 for uh as a work social media app on my phone I have YouTube to occasionally watch messages these are forms of social media as well but these can become come addictions and idols in my own life. And so I have had to remind myself that my 1:15:29 hands and my eyes belong to the Lord and to get his permission with the use of my time. Especially in the late nights, anticipate those night watches. That's when the devil will come for you and uh waste your time rather than meditating 1:15:45 on the word of God. So it's good for us to these things in small moderation are perfectly okay if we're checking in with God on our usage of it. But the problem with it is it dulls our spiritual edge and it takes our mind off of God on 1:15:58 meditating on his word. So it's a healthy practice to replace this by studying the word of God when you don't feel it. Discipline your body and your mind and say, "Lord, this belongs to you. I want to use it. I want to ask 1:16:10 your permission and I want to use it only for your glory." Amen.
