0:13 So question one, I have the assurance of being born again as a child of God, but I am struggling repeatedly with pornography and sexual temptation and leading a defeated life despite praying 0:29 praying earnestly how do I overcome it and when I fall into it have I lost my salvation brother Suna it's a great fundamental question and many people don't talk about these serious issues and 0:44 temptations that um teenagers uh young men even past teenage in fact all your life but especially in your youth young men especially deal with. Let me ask answer the second part of that question first. As I said in my message, 1:04 the Lord, if you make a mistake writing those ABCs, when you enroll, when you're in the school of Jesus Christ, he does not cast you out. You don't lose your salvation because you fell into sin. When you're when when you're when you give your life 1:21 to Jesus, we've heard this analogy. Some of you may have heard this analogy. The Lord has made you a new creation. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 I believe which means he has transformed you from being like a pig that enjoys pig's food 1:37 like that prodical son eating pig's food wallowing in the pig's food to a cat that doesn't want anything to do with it. He's changed the desire of your heart. Now a cat might fall into mud, but he doesn't want to hang out there and 1:54 wallow in that. He wants to get back. And even when I read this question, I see a desire of the person asking that question to say, "I don't want that anymore. I don't want to have that sin anymore." And if you have that desire 2:05 where you don't want to sin anymore, the Lord is not going to cast you out. He's going to be quick to forgive. The one who is at risk of losing that salvation, so to speak, is the one who says, "You know what? I've experienced 2:18 Jesus, but I'm choosing to reject it. I'm choosing to drop out from the school of Jesus, and I want to go back and wallow in sin. I want to go back and become a pig and enjoy it. But if the if the Lord has changed the desire of your 2:29 heart where even if you fell, you say, "I don't want that. I want to repent and I want to run back to God." The falling into sin does not cause you to lose your salvation. The Lord wants you to become an overcomer. But he is he 2:44 says the Lord is willing to abundantly pardon those who so I want to say this as a word of encouragement so that you can live a life free of condemnation free of discouragement that every time you can run back to the Lord and the 2:59 Lord says if you repent he will treat you as if you never sinned. You're altogether beautiful without any blemish. So then on to the part about sexual sin and pornography and being constantly defeated with this. 3:18 I believe that most young men struggle with this and part of the reason it is a constant defeat is because of the lack of the fear of God in their lives is because they don't see how serious sin is. And I think one of the things that many 3:36 young people pursue, I did this when there was a particular sin that was plaguing me in my uh younger days, my pursuit was because I I was told by uh my parents or by preaching or messages I heard that I needed to overcome it. And 3:54 so my pursuit was to overcome that sin. And I believe that can sometimes lead to a false outcome and can leave me defeated and leave each of you defeated. Whereas if my pursuit is to have intimate fellowship with my father, to 4:11 have him live with me constantly, to be in his presence constantly, to have unbroken fellowship with my heavenly father, if that's my pursuit, then I won't want any small thing that can break that connection. So, the way I like to think of it is 4:30 think of it like a light that's plugged in, a lamp that's plugged in. If I know that something that I'm dabbling with has the risk of cutting that connection or messing around with that electrical outlet so that it gets shortcircuited 4:49 and then and it's nighttime and the whole house is dark. It's like a power outage that many of you may have experienced, which I'm a part of the world you're in. Would you want a power outage? Is that something that you desire? Yet, every time that 5:06 you dabble in sin, every time you're cutting the lights from your entire heart, you are separating yourself from your heavenly father. And if I'm truly pursuing that, I want to be in the Lord's presence at all times. I won't want the 5:22 smallest thing. It doesn't matter if it's sexual sin. It could be an unkind word that separates me from him. And so, young men, what I want to say to you is rather than pursuing overcoming a particular sin, pursue to be in the 5:40 Lord's presence at all times. Pursue to be with God at all times. Understand the joy that he brings into your life. And you will not want to leave it. You will not you will take sin way more seriously. Imagine if I imagine if you had a 5:59 a a cake in your fridge, but I told you there's a little bit of poison somewhere in that cake. What would you do? It's your most favorite flavor of cake, but I told you there's a little bit of poison that is in that cake that somebody has put in 6:15 that cake. Would you try and bite around the icing? bite some parts of it and say, "Oh, I don't think the poison is in this part. Maybe let me grow around it." I think all of you would throw away that cake and say, "I don't want that cake. I 6:30 don't want to take the risk." And if we had that same seriousness to sin to say, "This is going to put my life into complete darkness and separate me from God." And I have such a good relationship with 6:48 God right now because he's forgiven me and he's called me his son and he's living with me and it's and he says at his right hands are pleasure forever more then I won't want anything to do with that. And that has been the secret 7:01 of my own victory has not been really pursuing overcoming the sin but pursuing to be in the Lord's presence and to have intimate fellowship with him at all times. And then that made all of these things of the world strangely dimmer. 7:15 all of these pleasures of the world uninteresting to me because I didn't want them to separate me from um fellowship with God. And that that has been my testimony. That's what I want to seek after. And the last thing I'll say 7:29 in this regard is that verse which I mentioned in Psalm 16:9 which says in the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy. Psalm 16:9, in his right hand is I love the fact that it has that second part of the verse which says in God's 7:41 right hand are pleasures forever more. And all of these things, pornography, sexual temptation, it gives you a a pleasure. And the devil has taken everything that was meant to be clean and pure and the 8:00 pleasure that God created and he has perverted it. God created sex and he created sexual pleasure but he created it with boundaries to be enjoyed in the context of marriage to one between one husband and 8:18 one wife but yet the devil has perverted it. So if I go back to that origin, it means that the creator of these pleasures must have a pleasure for me that is far greater than what this perverted pleasure that the devil has 8:34 taken and twisted it into. And if I see it that way, the creator has is the source of all pleasures because he created these pleasures. Then I want to have I want to go to the creator and not to the created. Not to the beautiful 8:50 girl that he created. I want to go back to the creator and say you have something far greater than this pleasure has to offer because your word says at your right hand are pleasures forever. And if you really really believe that verse and I can testify 9:07 this for my own life, the pleasure the Lord has to offer with his spirit living in you is far greater. And if if you haven't experienced it, cry out to the Lord and say, "Lord, I want that pleasure. I want the pleasure of the 9:21 creator. I do not want the pleasure of the created." And the perverted version of what the devil has done with that. Amen. Question two, how to keep my thoughts and eyes pure when girls in school and church wear immodest clothing? How do I keep my 9:40 thoughts and eyes pure when girls in school and church wear immodest clothing? How do I keep myself pure for the Lord? >> Yeah, another good question and a related question about temptation and lust of the eyes. The Bible says in 1 9:53 Corinthians 13 that there is no 1 Corinthians 10:13 that there is no temptation that you will experience teen boy or teen girl or whoever there's no temptation that any human being can ever experience 10:12 that you are not able to go through without God's help with God's help and with God's help he will provide a way of escape for every single temptation you will be able to endure it. Every temptation it says is common to 10:29 man and God is faithful. And what does that mean? It says Jesus was tempted in all points as we were. That's what it says in Hebrews. So if I look at those two verses together, it says there's no temptation that can overcome me. And Jesus himself 10:42 was tempted with the same temptations. Do you think Jesus saw girls with women with immodest clothing? Yes. It says he was tempted in that way. So I have to believe the scripture when it says he was tempted in that same way. 10:55 And the first thing I'll say is this is a common misconception that temptation is not sin. Jesus was tempted to commit suicide to jump off a building by the devil. He was tempted with fleshly desires in the desert. He was tempted by 11:10 immodesty. But yet he did not sin. And so do not condemn yourself if you are tempted. Tempted as that thought enter in your mind when you see that when you see that girl with the modest clothing. But what do you do after that? Do you 11:28 let that temptation conceive or give birth to sin? Do you dwell on it? Does your flesh agree on it? Does it gratify itself? The first look is not sin. That's the temptation. But if you if it's a if you the second look when you look back or 11:46 you dwell on that look and you absorb that in your mind, that's when sin creeps in. And so don't condemn yourself if you're tempted. But remember that your eyes are billion dollar eyes that the Lord has paid. He's insured those eyes to 12:01 say, "I can't let those eyes be damaged." So what are you going to do when that temptation creeps in? You're going to ask for the Lord's help. cry out for the Lord's help and look away. Look away immediately. People in the Old 12:13 Testament like Job said, "I will not look at a woman with lust." Joseph ran away from sexual lust. And if they could do it without the power of the Holy Spirit, how much more if we invite the Holy Spirit to be Lord of our lives, for our body to 12:29 be his residence and our eyes to be his residence, the Lord will help us to look away. And it's an encouraging thought to know that Jesus was tempted just like this. Yet he was without sin and that the Lord has said he will provide an 12:44 escape for us. He will intercede for us. We cry out to him. If we think we can do it on our own, then we're likely to sin. But the moment that crosses your path, cry out to the Lord and say, "Lord, I don't want to fall into sin in this 12:56 moment. This temptation is here, but my eyes belong to you. You will give me the power because it's your eyes to look away or to to take this temptation away from me. Lead me not into temptation. Jesus taught us to pray, lead me not 13:10 into temptation. That's a great prayer we can pray as well to say, Lord, I don't want I I hate sin so much that I pray that you will not bring this temptation across my eyes tomorrow. And yet the Lord may allow a temptation to 13:23 happen, but he's doing it. But he said that he will give you his power to overcome it. But the prayer of the helpless prayer to say I don't want even that temptation to come across my path is the one that will save you by 13:36 depending on the Lord by depending on the power of the Holy Spirit. >> So question three is a related question. >> I'm attracted to a girl in church and sadly many times I come to church looking for that one girl and I feel sad 13:53 when she's not there on a particular Sunday. How do I overcome this and love Jesus? Is it wrong to be committed to someone or to be in a relationship in your youth? 14:09 Great question. One that I'm sure many young men and young young women deal with. The first thing I want to say, like I said, about sex is that God created our feelings. The attraction 14:27 between a young man and a young woman. Guess who that was created by? Wasn't created by the devil. It was created by God. He was the attraction between a young man and a young woman was created by God. So that attraction is not sin. But how 14:44 you the devil has taken that attraction and perverted it and that's what you see perverted by the movies you watch by the shows that you what you see in the TV shows what you see on Instagram and Tik Tok these are the things that will 15:01 pervert that the Lord will use to pervert your perception to corrupt your perception of what that attraction should be or how you should act on that attraction or go uh act on your feelings. And yet the Lord is desires for your body and your feelings to be 15:19 controlled by him. For you to control your feelings and say, "You're not going to be my master. I'm going to be master over my feelings." So I I don't want anybody to feel condemned if they have that attraction. That's a perfectly normal thing that the 15:36 Lord created. But how you act on it is do you allow it? Does that become an idol in your life? Does that consume you? Do you pursue that? Do you go after that? And that's where the danger can creep in. And when you talk when you 15:50 talk about coming to church for the right reasons, the Lord wants to meet with you when you come to church. Are you sad if you didn't meet with the Lord? How many times have you come to the church and maybe that girl has not been there when 16:04 you came to church, but the Lord is saying to you, you came to church, but you didn't meet with me. I came. The Lord, like I said, the every time you glance on the Lord, his heart beats faster. The Lord wants that the relationship that you want with that 16:19 girl or that attraction that you have, the Lord wants that with you. And he says, "You came to church, but you didn't look at me. You didn't glance at me. And if you had glanced at me for even a moment, my heart would have 16:33 beated faster." And so I think it's an encouragement and a challenge to change the reason of why we come to church and say, "Lord, I want that love relationship with you. I want my heart to beat faster when I turn to you and I 16:49 want your heart to beat faster when I turn to you. That's the reason I want to come." This is secondary. I I I I don't want to entertain this. This is not the reason that I'm here at church. And so don't miss out on the opportunity of 17:01 coming to church or not even even picking up your Bible or spending time with God and saying, "Lord, I want that love relationship with you. This thing which I'm pursuing that can that that I can put on the altar cuz there's something far more important 17:17 which is the love relationship I have with you when I come to church." And that's what the Lord wants to have with you. And the second part of that question which was is it wrong to be committed to someone to be in a relationship in your 17:30 in your youth. I think it's a very dangerous thing to give away your art at a young age. The Lord has some the perfect person for you. There's somebody whether you're a boy or a girl. He's got a reserve tag on somebody out 17:49 there. It may be somebody you met already. It may be somebody you have not met yet. But he will confirm that person for you when the time is right. And how does he confirm it? Not by you going and seeking it and you going and looking for it. If you run 18:06 with your eyes on him. If you run this race looking at him, putting away, that's what Hebrews 121 and 2 says, putting away all of these distractions and these encumbrances. If you run looking to him, he will provide you somebody else, who's running 18:22 as fast as you, who's looking at Jesus, who's willing to have Jesus be the glue between uh you and him or you and her and he will provide you that person as a life partner. He will take care of that. You don't have to go pursue that. He will 18:39 pursue that and he will give you the attraction uh for that for that person as well. And that's why I say it's a dangerous thing as a teenager to entertain or to act on these attractions and to feed them and 18:57 to idolize them and to pursue them and definitely to get to a point of commitment. Commitment is meant for when you're more mature, when you're in your mid20s at the earliest or later on when you're ready for a married life and a 19:12 commitment. And the last thing you want to do is go into marriage having given away pieces of your heart or pieces of your eyes and say dear wife or dear husband all I have to offer you is this 90% because 10% of it 19:29 was given away in my youth cuz my uh I don't have pure eyes to give you. And uh someone once said the best gift you can give to your spouse as a young man is a gift of pure eyes. That's the best gift better than a wedding ring, better than 19:48 money or a good house. Give your future spouse a gift of pure eyes. And how do you give them a gift of pure eyes? It's by being pure right now in your youth. By not giving away a part of your heart until the time is right. exercising 20:02 self-control and m being master over your feelings. So I'll recap by saying the attraction itself is not sin. Don't condemn yourself over it. But don't feed that attraction and don't let that attraction and that feeling be master 20:16 over you and come to church looking for the love relationship with God seeing that his heart beats faster when you turn to him. >> Right? So question number four is about condemnation. The question is, I feel condemned because my parents compare me 20:36 to other kids who are smart and score good grades. I don't want to judge or disrespect my parents. But how can I have victory over this discouragement? One thing my dad has often said is that discouragement and condemnation are no 20:54 entry roads. We must run away from them. In fact, I have said that the sin of discouragement is worse than the sin of lust because it keeps you down. You if you bounce back up and run back to God, 21:13 he will forgive you. But discouragement is a sin that keeps you down. So there's no room for discouragement for any of us. And as it pertains to these things like academic grades, the Lord's desire is for us to, like I said, discipline our minds, to be 21:31 faithful, to be obedient to our parents. That's part of his desire in our youth. That's a command for us as children, as teens who are still in under our parents' authority to obey them. So when they ask us to study, we need to obey 21:48 immediately. When they ask us to pay attention to our studies, we need to obey immediately. The Bible says in Luke 16:10, "Those who are faithful with a little thing, the Lord will entrust greater riches." If you're not faithful 22:01 with your studying in school, the Lord can't entrust church ministry to you or marriage to you or greater callings for you. And the reason you study is so that you can one day have a good job so that you can provide for yourself. And that's 22:18 what Luke 16:10 is talking about. It's being faithful in money. And that faithfulness and with money starts with being faithful with your studies and doing all of that for the glory of God. And so that is absolutely important. 22:33 Now, is that the most important thing? The most important thing is to do it for the glory of God. Now, the Lord has given different levels of intelligence to different people. To some, he's given great intelligence and great wisdom. to 22:47 some he has not given the same level of intelligence. So you can say I studied my hardest and I truly was diligent and I did the best I could. Let me tell you that for the person who was faithful in listening to their parents studied their 23:04 hardest and did and was diligent about preparing and if they got in 80%. The Lord will say in my book you got 100%. For the person who was super smart and didn't bother listening to their parents, didn't bother studying 23:22 and got 87% when they could have gotten 98% the Lord has said you failed. You failed. So don't let the grade discourage you. Look at whether you are being diligent with obeying your parents, diligent with preparing. And even if your parents are 23:42 caught up with your grade, realize that even Jesus had imperfect parents. Jesus, it says Jesus continued in submission. Luke 25:51-52, it says the it's the only verses which talk about Jesus when he was your age. There's only two verses in 23:57 the Bible which talk about Jesus when he was your age. And it talks about what he did. It says he went back from the temple and he continued for the next 18 years from 12 to 30 submitting to his parents and that's how he grew in favor with God and men. And 24:17 so and his parents, we know his parents were not perfect. He was perfect. So when his parents didn't told him to do something or got upset at him because he didn't get a good grade in school, do you think it's possible Jesus did not 24:27 get a good grade in school? I think it's definitely possible. Do you think it's possible that Jesus didn't study hard? No. I think Jesus was very diligent with the study. But it's possible that somebody in some subject, not in the 24:38 word of God, we know that Jesus studied the word of God, but maybe in math or maybe in science or maybe in some other politics or whatever. Jesus may not have been the smartest person in that subject, but he gave his he was diligent 24:53 to obey his parents and to submit to them even if they got upset when he didn't get a good grade. And so may that be an encouragement to you to say the Lord wants me to continue to obey and submit to my imperfect parents. And I'll 25:12 tell you something about my own parents. I will say many things I thought my parents were wrong about and I was right about. I can say now 30 years later from being a teenager that 95% of the things that I thought they were wrong about they were 25:28 actually right about. I just didn't realize it at the time. Now that I'm a father of teenagers, I realize they were right. And the other 5% maybe I'll realize in 10 or 20 years that they were right about that too. But even if they 25:39 were wrong about those things, I can say, "Lord, what a blessing there is for me to submit to my to my parents even when I think they're wrong." Amen. >> This question is um question five. I like watching and 25:58 playing sports like cricket and football. But how can I ensure I don't become addicted to sports and yet still have a healthy interest in sports? So can I have a healthy interest in sports without being addicted? 26:18 >> Absolutely. I will tell you now I'm in my uh mid4s and I have a very healthy interest in sports. I love watching sports. I'm not addicted to it. I was once addicted to it as some of you were. Um, and it was a transformation for me 26:34 to be careful of. Anything can become an idol in my life. It's not just the lust of the eyes. Anything that becomes an idol in my life is sin. And the more I sought to pursue a life with Jesus of intimate fellowship with my heavenly 26:52 father, I can't explain it. the more I was I was serious about that in the last 15 20 years I would say you know there's the song which says turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of this world will grow strangely dim and I can say that's 27:08 been the testimony of my life they've grown strangely dim my interest in music I used to listen to a lot of music watch a lot of sports but they just grew strangely dim which means not that I I don't do it it's like the stars and the 27:24 sky. It's not that they're not there, but the sun just grew brighter and brighter and brighter. And I hope you can experience it at an earlier age than I experienced that where as a teenager, the son of spending time with Jesus, not 27:39 as a chore, not because your parents told you to do so or because you feel like it's a burden to do so, but there's a joy and a pleasure that comes from that of saying, "Lord, I want to spend time with you. I want to talk to you. I 27:50 want to have a open phone line conversation with you." That's what prayer is. You may not even be talking, but you're saying, "I'm ready to listen for anything you have to say to me." And I can say that that is really like the 28:04 sun growing brighter and brighter. And then these other things, they're there. They're they're okay, but it's okay if I miss them. There may be there's, you know, there's a test match between England and India going on right now. 28:19 But yeah, if the the youth meeting, the teens meeting is more important because I want to hear about the things of God, but after that, I might turn it on and watch it for a little bit. That's that's okay. But it does not consume me. It 28:32 does not it does not become my addiction. Many of you set alarms for your favorite games to wake up early to watch the UEFA Champions League or to um to um watch a particular match in the middle of the night. Would you set an 28:48 alarm to listen to the word of God? Do you anticipate the night? What do you anticipate on the night watches? What game you're going to watch? The previous verse before that in Psalms 19 says, "I wake up even before dawn to cry out to 29:06 you." So when you next time you're setting an alarm for a game or waking up early, remember that the reason that you should be waking up early is to cry out to God first. to cry out to God first. The reason you may be staying up late at 29:20 night is not to watch that sport. It's to meditate on God's word. But at the same time, having a healthy interest in sports, playing sports, watching sports, absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as it is in moderation and it is 29:33 not consuming you and it's not taking the throne that God has in your life. And to this day, there's sports I enjoy watching. There's sports I enjoy playing, but they are strangely dim compared to the bright light of Jesus in 29:49 my life. >> The next question is, I feel very rejected and unworthy when I do something completely opposite to what I am told to do. So, I do something completely opposite to what I'm told to do and then I feel very rejected and 30:05 unworthy. I don't even feel like coming to church. How do I overcome this mentality? >> This is a great question. Many of us, like I said, the struggle with condemnation and discouragement. Let me give you the answer to the 30:19 opposite of this question. What if you did everything, not the opposite, but what if you did exactly what you were told to do? The question said, "I feel very unworthy because I do the opposite of what I'm told to do and I don't want to do that." 30:37 This is what Jesus says about people who do exactly what they are told to do. Luke 17:10 says, "When you do all the things, Luke 17:10, when you do all the things which are commanded to you exactly as you were 30:54 supposed to do, what are you to say? You say I am unworthy. I'm only doing what I should have done. So you who the teen who asked this question or many of your teens may be asking this question. You may feel unworthy because you did the opposite. 31:12 But the reason you may be feeling unworthy is because you think that if I do something if I do exactly what uh is expected of me then I'm worthy. And that's a dangerous feeling to say that okay now I I I did it on my own. Okay, I 31:27 I was able to obey and that makes me a good person. The Lord is saying whether you do the opposite of what I told you to do or you do exactly what I asked you to do, in both cases you are unworthy. And it's 31:44 a great place to be to have that sense of unworthiness because then there is no worthiness in myself. The only worthiness is in God. The only worth is in God. Then I can run to God and say, "Lord, regardless, there's a verse in Philippians chapter 32:01 3, uh, verse 13, uh, just read quick. It says, Philippians 3:13 says, Paul says, I don't regard that I've taken hold of Christ being Lord of my life yet, completely Lord of my life." But he says one thing I do forgetting what lies 32:20 behind I reach forward to what lies ahead and I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So what does that mean forgetting what lies behind? It means if yesterday I did exactly what was 32:32 commanded of me, I forget it. I'm unworthy. If yesterday I did the opposite of what was commanded, I forget it. I'm unworthy. I forget it. And I say, Lord, tomorrow I'm going to press on. I'm going to run back to you. You promised 32:48 if I run back to you that you will call me altogether beautiful because of your righteousness, not because of anything on my own. And I want to press on to the upward call that you have for me tomorrow. All that or today. All that matters, 33:03 brothers and sisters, is today. Don't be condemned of the past. Run back to Jesus. Whether you obeyed yesterday, whether you walked with the Lord yesterday, or whether you fell into sin yesterday, but repented of it with 33:14 sorrowful repentance, in God's eyes, you're unworthy today, and you need his help today. But the encouragement is with his power, with the power of his holy spirit, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. 33:29 That's Philippians 4:13. And that's the call that we have. So the feeling of unworthiness is a good place to start, but it's a terrible place to remain because God has his righteousness for you and his power that is available to you that will bring 33:47 you joy and will not leave you in discouragement or condemnation. >> Yeah. We move on to the next question. How can I build fellowship among brothers, sisters and also the younger children around me in the church? Is it just asking how they are doing and 34:06 talking about biblical things? So a teen is asking this question, how can I build fellowship among brothers and sisters also the younger children? Is it just asking how they are doing and talking about biblical things? This is a great question and I love the 34:21 fact that teens have this burden to have fellowship with brothers and sisters to have fellowship with children. I can tell you from my own example of how I built fellowship with teens in my church or even my own children. And the 34:39 first step is actually not talking about biblical things. That's not that's a secondary topic. The first thing I want to do is befriend them. I want to be a friend to them. I want to listen to them. I want to listen to what interests 34:55 them. I want to hear about what they're excited about. What is what do they want to talk about that is exciting in their lives and come down to their level and be a friend to them. Nobody will listen to any biblical thing you have to say if 35:11 you're not a friend to them first. That's what Jesus did for me. Jesus came down to this earth to become like me. And so the first step to fulfilling this burden or acting on this burden if you're a teen and it's a great 35:24 ministry. Our children are in need. If you're an older person sitting on this call, your teens are in need. The first step towards that is come down to their level. Be a friend to them. Be a friend to them. Listen to what what's going on 35:38 in their school. listen to the sports that they want to talk about or listen to the friends that they want to talk about and become a friend to them at their level like Jesus did to you and when they see you as a friend then they 35:50 will start watching your life before even you say one word about biblical things they will see they will see your life the greater spoken word is what they see in you they'll see your love they will see your friendship they will 36:04 see kindness in you they will see forgiveness in you and that becomes contagious they'll want what they see in you. They will want the Jesus that they see in you in their lives. And then you can start talking to them about biblical 36:17 things because they you've shown them those biblical things. Whatever biblical things you're going to talk about, hopefully before you even talk about that, you've shown them in your life. So my advice to anyone who wants to do this 36:29 and this is a great calling and a great ministry that I encourage all of you to do is be a friend to the children. The Bible says associate with the lowly, associate with the children. The ones that are lacking in honor, the Bible 36:43 says he gives more abundant honor to. Who are those? Those are the children. And so we are called to give more abundant honor to the young children. Be their friend. If you're a 19-year-old, befriend the 13-year-old. Befriend the 36:55 15year-old. Come down to their level. Listen to what interests them. Let them see the life of Jesus and the fruit of the spirit in Jesus through you. Not just you preaching to them with biblical things. And then they will listen to you 37:08 when you want to share something from the word of God. >> Okay. Question eight. How do I balance studying and spiritual life? How do I balance studying and spiritual life? >> Good question. And I have a very revolutionary answer for this which is 37:28 to say studying is spiritual life. Studying hard is your spiritual life. And this is what it goes back to what I shared earlier, right? Uh I'll actually share this verse from Colossians 3:23 which says Colossians 37:46 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, do so studying, do your work, your homework, your schoolwork, do it hardily as for the Lord rather than for men. Not for your teachers, not for a good grade, but do it as if the Lord Jesus Christ was your professor or your 38:05 teacher or your grader. That's the one you're doing it for. So when you're studying, you're you really have to picture this. You're doing this for the Lord. And the Lord is with you at all times. And like I said in that verse 38:20 earlier which I shared from Luke 16:10 which says if you're faithful with a very little thing then the Lord will entrust greater riches to you. But if you're unrighteous with a little thing like studying then you will be unrighteous in the church 38:36 too. You'll be unrighteous in much bigger things. You'll be unrighteous in married life in in a job or in a church ministry the Lord has for you. So many of you as teens, the little thing that the Lord is interesting with you right 38:51 now is studying. And that's your spiritual life. You can have constant intimate fellowship with God by crying out for his help to help you with studying. So you don't need to it's not a question of balancing studying with spiritual life. But if you 39:09 see studying as spiritual life, studying is a part of my spiritual life. It's just not I read my Bible in the morning. Maybe I pray to the Lord. But when I study, I'm still with God. When I play, I'm still with God. When I 39:23 read my Bible, I'm still with God. When I fall asleep, even in the Bible says in Psalms 127 that even he gives to his beloved even in his sleep. So whether you're sleeping, studying, working, reading your Bible, going to 39:37 church, all of these things can be spiritual life. And that's what it should be is it's all of these things should be our spiritual life and communing with God. And that's the practical walk with God that the Lord has called us to. And if you see it that 39:49 way, then you don't it's a dangerous thing when you see it as separate as life with God and life with the world. But if the Lord consumes everything you do, then you say, "Hey, these eyes belong to God. So I'm going to use them 40:02 to study to be faithful with little. This mind belongs to God. So I'm going to ask God for help to save this mind is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to absorb what I study and be faithful a little. So, this has transformed my 40:14 life. Even as I work in the workplace to say, Lord, I'm working for you. That's my spiritual life. The 8 hours I spend at at work every day, the whatever work I do, every email I send, that's my spiritual life. And I want to be 40:29 faithful with that. Amen. >> I used to think that the first verse I see when I open the Bible is God speaking to me. How can I truly know when God is speaking to me through his word? 40:45 >> Yeah, it's a good question. I We can often mix up what is our feeling, whether it's the Lord speaking to me. I found that when the Lord speaks to me, there is a peace I have about it that I can't explain. And you know, I I don't 41:03 maybe the Lord speaks in miraculous ways where you open up the Bible to a random verse and he speaks to you. I'm not discounting that. I've heard many men of God speak that, but I don't believe that's a formula. I don't believe in 41:13 that as a formula. I believe the word of the Lord through the Holy Spirit will convict me of sin. So, any word that invites me higher to answer that upward call, not not brings me into condemnation. If a word brings me into 41:29 condemnation or discouragement, it's not a word of God. That's the devil. Any word that brings me into discouragement or condemnation is not a word of God. But if it convicts me of sin and invites me to repent and invites me to come back 41:42 to my father or to come up higher to answer the upward call, that's has to be a word of God because it's inviting me to become more like Christ. And the word of the Lord is compared to light. It's a lamp to my feet. It's a 41:56 light to my path. The lamp is showing me where I'm going right now. A light is showing me where I'm going uh in the future. And the word of God is meant to be something that is a bright light that exposes it may expose things in my life 42:11 that I didn't see because it was darkness. So if I see it that way as the word of God will shine a bright light and I'm not willing to shy away from what is being exposed by that, I will welcome anything that's the word of God. 42:23 The other thing the word of God is compared to is bread or my daily bread, which means it's meant to build me up and meant to nourish me. So, if it's building me up and not tearing me down, that is the word of God. And then I'll 42:36 share this um um Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 says we offer up again we offer up uh by the mercies of God we present our bodies again what we spoke about earlier as a 42:55 living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is our spiritual service of worship. The way we worship God is by giving up our entire body to God. And then it says,"Do not be conformed to this world, but by but be transformed by 43:08 the renewing of your mind." Don't be conformed to what the world is telling you, that's not the word of God. What you see the advice or the psychology from your social media feed, that's not the word of God. That's the that's 43:19 conforming to the world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will prove what the will of God is. That is good and acceptable and perfect. And this is one of the few verses that talks about the will of God. 43:32 How do I prove what is God's will for me? It's by renewing my mind by being by throwing away the things of the world, not being conformed by the things of the world, by renewing my mind by the word of God. And that's why we have these 43:46 memory verses that we memorize. That's why I encourage all of you to read the Bible. Start with the New Testament. Read one chapter a day and uh read it in the living Bible if it's easier for you. But whatever you do, start with the New 43:59 Testament. read one chapter and say, "Lord, I don't want to leave this chapter until you speak something to me. Speak something that is practical to me." And take seriously the memory verses that you have each week. Memorize 44:11 them. And I'll tell you this, there are verses, even some of the verses I shared with you today that I didn't have in my heart or my mind 10 or 15 years ago, but they're coming back to me because I committed them and I can see that 44:24 they're speaking to me and that that's the word of God. So if you're faithful with reading the word of God, not for not because your parents told you to do so, but to change your life, for it to practically change your life, 44:37 read a chapter and say, "Lord, I do not want to leave this chapter until you speak to me something practical for me today." Then the Lord will honor you and will speak from his word. And that will be the evidence of the word of God, not 44:50 just you randomly turning to a verse and hoping that that speaks to you. The Lord is faithful. And if you honor him and you desire for him to speak to you, he will speak to you. Uh I will share one more verse which is in Hebrews chapter 4 45:03 verse 12. This is how I know it's the word of God. Hebrews 4:12 talks about the word of God. It says the word of God. How do I know it's the word of God? It's living and it's active and it's sharp sharper than a two-edged sword. 45:20 Piercing as far as the division of the soul and the spirit and judging the thoughts and the intentions heart. What does that mean in simple language? What that means is we have soloulish things in us which are like our feelings and we 45:33 have the spiritual that the Lord wants to uh grow in us and the word of God will separate those feelings and those things of the world that we want to act on and give us a clear mind of the things which are spiritual that he wants 45:48 us to grow in. So, if you are acting on your feelings or you're just doing whatever you feel you want to do or whatever your hands feel like doing, whatever your eyes feel like doing, that's not what the word of God is doing. The living word of God will help 46:00 you take this violent sword to say, "I'm not going to be controlled by my feelings, but I'm going to let the word of God expose my innermost thoughts, the intentions of my heart, and transform me through the renew renewing of my mind 46:15 into the likeness of Jesus." So, if you find yourself listening to the word of God, the daily devotionals that we have, memorizing the word of God, reading a chapter, the you will find the confirmation that it's the word of God is that it is 46:30 bringing you up higher, bringing you into more of the likeness of Jesus. Amen. >> Amen. Amen. I I love that as you speak sun that sense of searching and finding and digging deep. Uh you know not just it would be so easy and it would be lazy 46:49 right if the Lord spoke to us through the first verse every time. Yeah. Then I've done my I've done my work for the day. No no those who search and seek will find >> and that's that's so good to hear. >> Uh question 10. I'm a born again person. 47:04 I was saved by the grace of God. But when I see my worldly friends and people who are close to my heart, I'm really saddened by the truth that they don't have salvation. How can I help them? >> It's great that the Lord has given you a 47:20 burden for classmates or friends who of this world. But there's something important to realize is that as much as you are saddened, the Lord is saddened even more. And guess who loves your friends more than you love your friends? 47:38 God who desires to be a heavenly father who says Jesus I said Jesus came to this earth to make sure that not one is lost that all would come to him and so that he could go back to the father and say all that you gave to me I did not even 47:53 lose one of them. and he has that desire for your friends greater much much greater than your own desire and much much more saddened by um the worldliness that he sees with them. It says in 2 Peter chapter 3:es 8 and 9, it says 48:09 that the Lord a thousand years is like one day in the eyes of the Lord and that the Lord in verse 9 says the Lord is not slow about his promise but he is patient desiring all to come to repentance. So the Lord has an amazing patience for 48:28 people like this which is to say that you may want them to turn to God today or tomorrow or the next day. The Lord's saying no I look at 10 years 15 years 20 years. If thousand years is one day it means that 10 20 years is just a few 48:43 minutes. It's just a few minutes in his eyes. So what we're thinking is a long time is actually a very short time in the Lord's eyes. And the Lord is saying I'm willing to be patient with that person. I desire for all to repent and come to know me. 48:56 And we must have that same desire that all repent and come to know me. And then if we have that mindset that the Lord is patient and he has that desire for all to repent, then we pray to the Lord and say, "Lord, how can you use me to help 49:09 them?" And I found that the best way to do that is through our lives much more so than our words. When they see you in a difficult situation, when you're going through a difficulty, they're all anxious and they're all worked up, but you're at peace because 49:26 you have a heavenly father. There's no point speaking about a heavenly father if you don't if they're not able to see the security of a heavenly father when you're going through going through your trial. Then they'll say, "Hey, you have 49:37 a religion. I have my religion, but you get anxious and you get worried and you get angry just like I do. So, what does that mean? Your worries about Jesus don't help me." But if they see in your life that you have love and joy and 49:47 peace through difficult circumstances, when they're gossiping about a teacher or when they're talking evil, you want nothing to do with it. And they see that and you're not willing to listen to that or you're not willing to laugh at that 50:00 dirty joke. It's like they they'll be like, there's something different about this person. I want what he has. He has a love and joy and peace that is far greater. And he seems to be happier and more joyful even in his difficult times 50:12 than any of these any of my happiness that I get in these short-term uh through the short-term gratification of doing what I feel like doing. And that will speak to them. The Bible says that we are meant to be the fragrance of 50:27 Christ that is meant to to some it'll be an aroma of death. It says so so some may not be willing to see that and they they're like oh he's just a religious nut uh and you'll be an aroma of death to them. But for anybody who has an 50:41 inclination to turn towards God you will be a fragrance of Jesus Christ to them. So pray to the Lord that your life will be a witness. And then as your life is a witness, your words can be more meaningful as well. And this is what 50:57 I've strive to do in the workplace as well is not to actively go preaching to everybody or but to have them see the way I interact that I treat the person two levels down from me the same way as I treat my boss or my boss's boss that I 51:14 am not when a difficult situation has come. The way I write my emails is in with humility and with grace. And when I'm a difficult situation comes in the workplace, I'm not stressed or worried about it like they are. I'm not 51:24 competing with them. And that's the same thing that people will be looking at with you. And one of the things I do is sometimes I have a couple of I have a picture in my office of the good shepherd reaching down and helping the 51:37 sheep. And sometimes people have come into my office and said, "Oh, what does that mean?" And so I use that as an opportunity to tell them about what my faith means. Or they ask me, hey, I see you acting differently from the typical 51:48 manager in this situation. What what what makes you different in the way you you deal with this? And that gives me an opportunity to talk about my faith in Jesus. And the same thing can be true in your life. Maybe you just keep uh uh a 52:03 Bible that they can see or in your car or in your vehicle you have something you have a something that indicates that you're a Christian. You ask what does that mean to you? What why is that important to you? And you can and for 52:15 the ones who are interested you can speak from your life what the Lord is doing in in your life but only what the Lord has accomplished in your life. That's how I found that the Lord will honor that burden. But it must start 52:26 with the burden which I'm so glad to hear that uh you as teens have that for your friends. Amen. >> Uh question 11. So a short question. Is it wrong to wear jewelry? >> Yeah. I'm not going to answer this question the way it's expected to be 52:42 answered. But I would ask I would ask the teen who's teens who are asking this question to ask yourselves the more important question is what is your purpose in wearing jewelry? And this is what the Bible says about it. We're not 52:55 meant to look at the the Bible the in the new covenant. We're not called to have a life of laws and rules and regulations. 2 Corinthians 4 reads about it. I encourage you to read that chapter. It's a very liberating chapter. 53:13 The Holy Spirit is meant to come uh to us and be a spirit of life and liberty, of freedom, not one of rules and regulations and condemnation. And that chapter talks about the ministry of condemnation which was from the law of 53:30 the Old Testament being replaced by the ministry of righteousness and a life of liberty. And the Bible says in other places as well, happy is the one. Romans 14 it says happy is the one who does not condemn himself or what he approves. But 53:44 yet it also says for the one who knows in in James chapter 4 it says for the one who knows the right thing to do but does not do it is sin. So if the Lord has convicted you about something like this and you choose to not listen to it, 53:58 it's sin. But if the Lord has not convicted you of it and you say it's not written in scripture, I'm not disobeying a command of the Lord, then happy are you if you approve something that you do not condemn yourself over. And so the 54:12 real motivation to look at is why is it so the passage which why is it that you want to wear jewelry? And so the the passage that talks about is 1 Peter 3:3 and 4 which says your adornment must not 54:29 be external. 1 Peter 3:3 your adornment must not be external which is fancy hairstyles, gold jewelry or expensive dresses. That's what the B that's what this verse talks about. And it's funny, we talk about jewelry, but nobody talks about 54:46 fancy hairstyles or expensive clothes as much as we talk about jewelry. But really, this verse talks about many things. So the next time for women, we have jewelry, men should be asking themselves, if you have a fancy hairstyle, why do you have a fancy 55:01 hairstyle? Or you're putting on an expensive dress, why are you putting on an expensive dress? And the real answer is, are you trying to draw attention to yourself? And if you're trying to draw attention to yourself, then that's 55:14 sinful and that's wrong. If you're you're not trying to draw attention to God, but if you're trying to dress well for the purpose of uh the workplace or uh going to school, not to draw attention to yourself, but to look 55:30 clean and hygienic and well and well prepared. And especially think of it as if you're going into an interview and you want to look good not to draw not to stand out from the crowd like where everybody's looking at you but to to not 55:44 stand out for being unckempt either then there's nothing wrong with that as long the key question to ask is are you drawing attention to yourself but more importantly the next verse says 1 Peter 3:4 it says let your beauty be in the hidden person 56:01 of your heart which is with the imperish perhapable quality of a meek and a quiet spirit which is precious or beautiful in the sight of God. And so it's important for us to look at what is beautiful in the sight of God. The beauty that is in 56:15 the sight of God is humility. The humble spirit. Whether you're a man or a woman, whether you're a young man or young woman, the Lord is looking for humility. And that's the beauty that we must be consumed with when we're getting up to 56:27 get ready in the morning and we're shaving or washing our face or dressing up or putting some gel in our hair. Those are far less important. Those are that's the external beauty that we should not be consumed with. But we 56:40 should be consumed with say Lord I want to just like I'm preparing my face and my body to be presentable. Much more important than that, I want to prepare my body and my spirit to be presentable to you with the beauty of a meek and a 56:56 quiet spirit. And I want to look beautiful to you today through my spirit. That is a million times more important than what I do on the outside. And so it's important, brothers and sisters, to examine yourself for what it 57:10 is that we why is it that we choose to do certain things and not look by like, oh, is this allowed? Is that not allowed? That's the wrong question to ask. The right question to ask is, am I seeking to draw attention to myself by 57:23 what I'm doing, by what I'm wearing, by the way I speak? And then ask yourself that question about anything you do, whether it be fancy hairstyles, expensive clothes, or jewelry. And the Lord will give you uh will convict you or give you peace about 57:38 uh what it is that is truly beautiful to him, which is a meek and a quiet spirit. This is our last question, brother Sunil. Um, thank you for for your patience and for for answering all of these questions with uh I I'll ask you 57:54 to close in prayer after you've answered this question. At what age should a teenage girl wear head covering? I want to obey God's word. So, a teenage girl is asking at what age should I be wearing a head covering in obedience to 58:09 God's word? I want to obey God's word. Yeah, this is from a passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 where it says that a woman should not should pray with her head covered. Should not pray with her head uncovered. Um 58:27 and um it's something we've tried to be faithful with in many of our churches. Um and again this is not something that we want to be again legalistic about but it's the spirit that is represented there and that passage you can read that 58:43 passage the spirit of submission the spirit of having an authority above us god's authority o over us or in marriage uh the husband's authority over a woman that's a place that the lord has desired and this is symbolic of that even in the 59:00 church so that's the purpose of it. So far more important than at what age should I wear it is like I said earlier, do I have the humble spirit that is symbolized by that? Do I have a spirit of saying I'm willing to submit to my 59:18 parents? I'm willing to submit to my elders and in the future I'm willing to submit to my husband. That's the spirit that is beautiful and precious to the Lord. It's not a bad thing. The world has turned that and made that a bad word 59:33 that the word submission a bad word with uh all of its talk about rights and equality and things of that. Yeah, men and women are completely equal. All of us, like I said, 1 Corinthians 9:24, all of us can win that prize. Doesn't matter 59:48 what ministry, doesn't matter what gender. If you're a young girl, you can become you. God can do exactly what he did for Jesus, he can do for you. And you can win the same prize that Jesus won and the same prize that every young brother 1:00:03 can. But he has assigned certain roles in the church and certain responsibilities. And part of that is uh as the weaker vessel, he is assigned that uh this should be a symbol of humility and having uh authority over uh 1:00:22 o over a woman by her head being covered. Now much more important than this is at this age as a teenager is obedience to your parents. There's one command for teenagers like I said that's the command that Jesus followed in Luke 1:00:35 21:52 uh to Luke 2:51 and 52 and what we read about in Ephesians 6 which is children obey your parents. So I would say the simple answer if you are a young teen whose parents are believers obey your parents. Ask your parents what they 1:00:54 would have you do and obey your parents. And if they tell you one way or the other, just obey them and trust that the Lord will when you become an adult, the Lord will it it is great that the Lord has put a burden on your heart to be 1:01:10 obedient to something as small as this as a small command that is in his in his scripture. But far more important than that is consult with your parents, obey them. I don't believe that there is uh an age that is too young or an age that's too 1:01:26 old, but I think it's far more important to obed to obey your parents at this age. And then as you uh grow to be baptized, give your life to Jesus and and as an adult then you want to obey scripture as it's spoken in this regard 1:01:40 independently of your parents. We can close in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for these dear teens who have come here today. Lord, the fact that they're here today is because they have a hunger for you and 1:01:56 they have a burden to be to grow to know you, Lord. I pray that uh the word that we've heard, Lord, would bear fruit in their hearts, Lord. that they would give their bodies completely to you, that they would not be content with just running back to 1:02:14 you, Lord. First of all, I pray, Lord, that there would be no condemnation, no discouragement, that they would run away from those and run back to you and know that you welcome them with open arms. That when they've repented, you look at 1:02:27 them as if they've never sinned. You look at them as altogether beautiful and without blemish. And going forward, Lord, I pray that they would upward, they would answer the upward call every single day, Lord, to be a little bit more like you. To give 1:02:43 their bodies, their eyes, their ears, their mouths, their hands, their minds holy to you so that you can reside in them and that they would be violent against anything that would bring a separation between them and you, Lord. 1:03:01 Teach them the fear of the Lord at a young age and teach them the love of the Lord, the love of a heavenly father that they can be secure in. Lord, may they all grow to be wholehearted disciples of you, Lord. Young brothers, young sisters 1:03:14 who all win that prize that you have won, Lord, that Jesus won, Lord. Can we assassure them that what you as our heavenly father has done for Jesus, you can do for them, Lord. May this be true in each of our lives in Jesus name. 1:03:30 Amen.
