0:12 So question one, what does it mean to be in fellowship with God? All right, Sunil, I'll hand it to you. Yeah, I think this is a great question and I think you got a little bit of your answer from what just happened earlier on in the global meeting when I had this power outage. I 0:33 think of fellowship with God the same way as I think of having electricity or power in my house. When it's broken, you're desperate, you should be desperate to want to restore it. It's like having that power in an electrical connection. Think of it like 0:57 a lamp that's connected to the electrical socket. Now, if there's something like a storm that comes and disrupts or just accidentally cutting off the wire that disrupts that light and the light goes off, I want to be as urgent about restoring electricity, whatever it takes, restoring 1:21 my Wi-Fi or think of it like your Wi-Fi signal. And just like how when I got disconnected from you guys on this global meeting, I was desperate to get back on. I wanted to get back on. I was like, okay, let me switch on my hotspot, whatever it takes. And that's what I believe 1:39 fellowship with God is like, is the moment sin comes in and breaks that, anything that takes my mind off of God or takes God from being the throne in my life, any sort of, whether it's a sexual sin or a sin of idolizing something else in my life, that's going to break that connection 2:04 between me and God. And that's going to cut that wire and that's going to turn the lights off. And I may not realize it immediately. Maybe it's a little bit of a buffer, but that really is what happens. And if you understand the relationship with God that way, 2:16 you'll do anything you want, anything you can to restore it. You won't take sin lightly. You won't take those sins that you've been trying to conquer so lightly or trying to overcome. And now your desire does not just become overcoming those sins. 2:30 That doesn't become your desire. Your desire becomes constant fellowship with God, constant power, constant electricity, constant wifi signal. And when you see that broken, you're desperate to have it back. It's not about conquering the sin or overcoming the sin. It's about getting that connection back 2:48 and conquering the sin or overcoming the sin is just a repenting of the sin is just a means. It's like connecting your hotspot or it's just a means of getting that connection back. And it's important for us teens to realize the most important thing 3:03 that we're after is not overcoming sin. The most important thing we're after is unbroken fellowship with our Heavenly Father. And if we see that unbroken fellowship with our Heavenly Father is what I'm really, really after. 3:18 I don't want anything to break that. And I'm so disturbed if something small breaks that then overcoming sin will be easier. It's like if you go into a dark room and nobody says when they go into a dark room, let's fight this darkness. 3:34 Let's fight the darkness in that corner. Let's fight the darkness in this corner. Let's fight the darkness in that corner. No, you say, turn on the lights. And that's how fellowship is meant to be is running back to God and repentance when you fall in. Or when you see a temptation that's going to turn off 3:50 the lights in a room of your heart saying, no, I don't want that light to be broken. I don't want that to be broken. Keep the lights on. Turn on the lights. I don't need to. The best way to fight darkness is not to attack darkness. It's to turn on the lights. 4:06 Turning on the lights automatically extinguishes darkness. And so I found for my own life that I've been victorious when I sought unbroken fellowship with God. I'll use a couple examples. And I think these pertain to other questions as we read them. Have you ever seen a two-year-old 4:24 secure in their mom's lap and just hanging out? And they're happy there. And then when they get off their mom's lap and somebody else holds them, they want to get back in their mom's lap. They don't like, they're uncomfortable with the person who's holding them. That's how, 4:37 when we're young Christians, that's how as teenagers, that's how we must be with God. We should just be comfortable being in his lap. And if something else in the world has taken us, we must have that same discomfort to say, 4:49 no, this is uncomfortable. I want to get back into the lap of my father. Or another analogy would be, have you ever had a friend that maybe you want to talk to on a phone call, on a video call, and maybe do homework together? And so you call them up on a video call while you're doing homework. 5:08 And sometimes you're not talking. You're just being with them. You're not even talking to them. You're just being them, doing your own thing. But that phone connection and that phone call is always there. That's another picture of fellowship. 5:20 It doesn't mean that you're talking or listening. And this is what it means to be praying as well, is it's that the constant phone line is always, it's open. And when the other person talks, you listen immediately. Okay, they're talking. And when you talk, they listen immediately. But 5:35 it's okay to be quiet and in their presence with that call unbroken. And if the call gets broken, you want to get back in like, why did she hang up on me? Why did he hang up on me? You want to get back on that phone call. And that's a picture 5:49 of fellowship. And a good picture of it is what God in the story of the prodigal son, we see the father telling the older brother, when the older brother is out of the house, Luke 15, he says, son, you have always been with me. 6:04 And all that is mine is yours. That's my definition of fellowship. Son, be with me. All that is mine is yours. All you need to do is just be with me. So hopefully that answers in a little way my understanding of fellowship with God. 6:21 Question number two, I have been defeated in sexual thoughts in my mind and body. How can I repent from these thoughts? That's a really relevant question for many teenagers and for people your age. It is a major struggle and it is something, like I said earlier, don't focus on conquering the sin as 6:51 much as you focus on seeing that as bringing a power outage in your relationship with God. If you see it that way as bringing a poison pill into your relationship with God, really cutting that wire between you and God. And yes, that can be fixed 7:07 and can be restored and can be, but it's a painful process to restore it. You have to, you have to, you repent in tears to restore your relationship with God. And it's not something that is, why would you want to break that? Why would you want to run 7:24 out of God's presence? And when you see it that way, I found it's much easier. When I struggled with temptations like this in my younger days, what really delivered me was this realization that I was not seeking to overcome sin as much as I was seeking to have unbroken fellowship 7:46 with my Father. And then I was like, why would I allow this thing to break my fellowship with Him? The other thought that's come to me is a lot of times, this really what God has created with a holy purpose, which is marriage and sex within marriage has been perverted by the devil. 8:08 And through things like pornography and premarital sex and adultery and things like this, it's been perverted by the devil and completely perverted something that God created for a very special purpose. And so if I see God as the creator of something that was pure, 8:25 that the devil has perverted and made impure, then I say, there is a good thing in there that is meant for me in married life. And I'm willing to wait for that. But not only that, if God created it, He is the creator. There's a verse in Psalms chapter 16, 8:44 which says, in His presence is fullness of joy, in His hand are pleasures forever. So it tells me that the creator has far greater pleasures in His right hand than this created thing that He's created also for my pleasure. 9:02 So why would I go to the source of all pleasures for that? And I remember that verse speaking to me when I was in my early 20s, and I said, Lord, I don't want the created. I want the creator and the pleasures you have. And the Lord really met with me, filled me with this 9:21 Holy Spirit in a unique way that night when I cried out to Him and gave me something, gave me a pleasure that was far greater than the short-term pleasure that sexual gratification had to give. Now, for those who have fallen and are struggling with condemnation, 9:40 I just want to share a few words with you. My favorite verse which summarizes the gospel is John chapter 8, verse 11. John chapter 8, verse 11 says, Jesus speaking to the woman who was caught in adultery, says, I do not condemn you. 9:56 And that's the first half that I want to share with anyone who has struggled, repented. The Lord does not condemn you for any of your past sins if you have repented. He does not condemn you. But then the second part of that verse says, go and sin no more. And so the Lord's 10:14 desire is this twofold, this beautiful twofold picture of forgiveness, constant forgiveness, readiness to forgive if we repent and desire to restore the connection. I don't condemn you. Don't spend one minute thinking on those past failures, even if it was 500 times or 10:31 a thousand times or even if it was five times in a day. Run back to the Lord. He will forgive you. Run back. Every single time run back. But every time you run back, don't have this attitude of, oh, I'm just going to follow this formula and I know I'm going to do it again in a few hours. 10:48 I know I'm going to fall into this area in a few hours, but since I've been told this formula, I'm going to follow it. That's not repentance. Repentance is truly running back and saying, I don't want this to ever separate me from God again. 11:01 And then the Lord will tell you, don't sin anymore. And so when you come back, the mark of a truly repentant one is in his mind and his heart, he really doesn't want to sin anymore. And in a way he's sure that if he stays here, he will never sin anymore. 11:18 And that's the beauty. And you can't do it on your own. You know you can't do it on your own. I can't do it on my own. But that's the amazing thing of God's power and being in his presence and the power of his Holy Spirit. 11:30 The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12, in our weakness, his power is perfected. And so the weaker I am in this situation, it means that God has amazing power to perfect in that situation, to bring deliverance to me. And that's the only way I can achieve it. Not through any striving on my own part. 11:54 Proverbs chapter 24 verse 16 is an interesting definition of a righteous man. It says, how would you think you define a righteous man? Is a righteous man defined by their sinless streak, how long they've gone without sinning, like weeks, two weeks, a year, five years? Is 12:12 that how you measure a righteous man? This verse, Proverbs 24 verse 16 says, this is how it defines a righteous man. It says, a righteous man falls seven times, but rises back up all seven times. Whereas the wicked man wallows in that sin and stays down. And so one thing I'll say to you, 12:35 those who are struggling with this, there's a far greater sin than sexual sin. And it's a sin that will keep you down. It's a sin of discouragement and condemnation that will keep you down. And that'll keep you from being righteous and bouncing back up when 12:53 this happens. The righteous is not defined by how long they've gone without sinning. The righteous person is defined by running, how fast they run back to God. There's a beautiful verse that you can proclaim over the enemy, Satan. Micah chapter seven, verse 79. 13:10 It says, as for me, I will wait expectantly for the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. And this is something you can proclaim over Satan every time you fall. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy, Micah seven verse eight. Though I fall, I will rise up. 13:30 I will rise up fast. Though I'm currently in darkness, though that connection is broken, the Lord is going to be my light for me. I'm going to repent. This is repentance. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I've sinned against him. Until what? Until he pleads my case. 13:47 I don't even need to plead my case. He pleads my case and executes justice for me, and he will bring back that light, and I will see his righteousness. That's a great definition of repentance, Micah seven, verse nine. 14:00 And what you tell the enemy is, you don't get to rejoice over me. I'm not going to stay condemned. You're not going to get me with the greatest sin of condemnation and discarnation because I am going to be proven righteous by rising up and running back fast. 14:14 And then in the future, you know, the Bible says, 2 Timothy 2 verse 22 says, as these temptations present themselves, flee from them. Run away from them. Don't take them lightly. If you think that there is a risk, you know that there's something bad with the electrical 14:29 circuitry, or you know that there's something that's going to risk cutting your power, you'll do anything you can to insulate that and make sure that you're not exposed to that electrical breakage. You'll do anything to run away from a 14:40 place where there's darkness and want to be in a place where there's light. Amen. Now question three. I get easily tempted and fall into sin often in college. My impure mind can't handle the provocative dressing. I try but fail. I know we shouldn't blame them for dressing so, but how do I avoid this? Yeah, 15:03 I mean, it's similar to the last question where I said, where I answered at the last part. If I see this yielding to these thoughts as breaking my connection with the Lord, I will insulate myself. I will do things to look away immediately. I was like, the first look is usually just 15:24 the temptation, and it's a glance where you notice somebody who's dressed promiscuously or immodestly, and that's between them and God. We can't judge them. They may not have the light we do. They may be living in the world, so that's between 15:40 them and God. It's not our job to judge them, but it's our job to judge ourselves. So rather than blaming them, we say, it's a, say, Lord, you allowed this temptation to come into my life to test me. I'm going to pass this temptation by doing what? By not 15:59 flirting with this temptation, by not, let me see if I can handle this temptation. What does the Bible say? Second Timothy 2.22. It's an easy verse to remember. Two, two, two, two. Second Timothy 2.22. Flee, run away from youthful lusts and 16:12 pursue righteousness from those who, along with those who cry out to the Lord from a pure heart. Do you have a desire for a pure heart? If you have a desire for a pure heart, you'll be crying out to the Lord, preserve me in purity, preserve me in your presence. 16:27 And then you'll be running away from these temptations. What does that mean? Does that mean physically running away from your classroom if somebody is there? No, it means, Lord, I don't want to look at that. I don't want to entertain the second look. 16:39 The first look may be temptation. The second longer look of dwelling is what will get you. It is what will lead you into lust, into temptation, into your imagination, and into sin. And you've already sinned the moment you've entertained that. And so the moment that 16:57 glance comes up, whether it be something that comes up on your newsfeed, on social media, on the internet, when you're looking at something else, maybe you're innocently surfing some ad popped up with somebody immodestly dressed. What do you do with that? Run away. 17:13 Close the browser window. Run away. Close the app. Stay away from it. Put some limits on your apps. Put some boundaries on that. Delete the app if that's what it takes. If that's provocative, sit in the opposite corner of the 17:25 person who's dressed that way. When you see the person coming that direction, turn around. Turn your back and run away. That's what it means to flee youthful lust. And I tell you, young brothers and young sisters, the Lord will honor you and will preserve you in his 17:42 presence if you take it seriously, that you cry out to him in a strong desire to stay pure rather than be lucid and say like, oh, I think I can live with that. I think I can be here and not run away and still be an overcomer and still be 17:59 in God's presence. Question number four, I can't stop scrolling TikTok. How to avoid worldly things like this? How to guard my affections? How to repent again? No, this is, yeah, I think this is a great danger from young men, young women, social media. 18:20 I don't, I'm not going to say social media is a sin or I don't know. I think TikTok in particular has a lot of really immodest content and things that are not really profitable. Some other social media can be beneficial for news or LinkedIn for your career. 18:40 Maybe other social media for keeping in touch with people or just keeping tabs on where they are or even getting some news articles on sports. I don't know. Maybe TikTok has some of that too. I don't know. I don't use TikTok, but I've seen others using it as well. I 18:54 think there's a big risk over there and I think anything that takes the place of God in your heart and the throne of your heart is a danger of becoming an idol. You may not know it's an idol. It might be just mindless scrolling, 19:12 but it's become an idol in your life. And if you see it as an idol, like I said earlier in the message, you'll start to become like your idol. So you start to become like the things you see. But if you see it as an idol, 19:23 as stealing God's place in your heart, you will be violent about keeping it away and reputting things like app limits. Like, okay, on most of the phones now, you can do screen time or have your parents do screen time and say, okay, I'm not going to be on this app for more than one minute. 19:41 And after a minute, it's going to show up a time limit. Okay, done. Stop using it. Here's something I'll share importantly. This was something that I know I didn't have these kinds of exposures. We did have the internet, 19:54 but not to the extent that social media was available at our fingertips when I was your age. I will say the most dangerous time is the nighttime when your mind is tired and you just have nothing to do. And there's a special verse that has encouraged me, which is Psalms 119, 20:20 which says, my eyes anticipate the night watches. This is David saying, this is David in a day and age where there was no social media, no computer, no internet, but yet he knew there was something dangerous about the night watches when his guard was down, when his mind was tired. 20:38 It says, my eyes anticipate the night watches that I may meditate on your word. David chose to meditate on the word of God. He didn't have a Bible. He didn't have a Bible on. He didn't have a phone with the Bible. He didn't have a physical Bible, 20:52 but he had what was passed on from generation, what he had memorized. He said, I'm going to meditate on that because replacing my mind and my thinking with that will save me from falling into this trap of just picking up my phone and scrolling mindlessly. So 21:10 young men and women, that's my encouragement to you. Anticipate the night watches. Keep your phone way far away from your bedside table and your laptop way far away in the nighttime, especially that's the time I believe the enemy will come for you with these 21:27 things. And so there are practical things you can do if you are serious about this, to eliminate these rather than yield to what your flesh feels like doing. And it takes a little bit of suffering because it goes against what you feel like. 21:43 And reading the Bible is again, goes against what you feel like. But imagine this. We say, God had this love relationship. He's my hero. And my hero has written a letter to me. He's written a love letter to me. If I see it that way, maybe it'll be boring at first, but I want to grow to be excited by 22:02 reading what he has to share with me and to have that be what I meditate. And David understood that in the Old Testament. And he anticipated the night watches and chose to put his mind on things that were of eternal value and not on these things that could distract and steal God's place in his life. 22:24 Question five. I did a really terrible thing once. I feel very, very, very, very guilty about it. God could have just maybe not do it. Why did he let me? Yeah. And this goes back to the point around condemnation. God has not created us as robots. God has created the planets as 22:43 robots. They go around the sun in perfect harmony. They don't sin. No planet says, oh, I'm going to go do a terrible thing today. And I'm going to crash into earth. I'm Mars. I'm going to do a terrible thing today. I'm going to crash into earth. 22:55 No, they don't. But yet those planets don't have the opportunity to be sons and daughters of God. God gave us a free will. And we choose to exercise it. And sometimes we choose to exercise that poorly and say, here's the 23:11 beautiful message. Like I said, in John 8, verse 11, you did a terrible, terrible, terrible thing. It can't be more terrible than the ones who killed Jesus. There was a brother of Jesus who completely called James who completely despised him and rejected him. There was an 23:28 apostle named Paul who stoned people and killed people who were supporting Jesus. Anything you did can't be much worse than that, even if it's a falling into sexual sin. These are people who really did the worst of the worst. And Paul calls himself the chief of sinners. 23:46 And yet God redeemed both of those people, Jesus, his own brother, James and Paul. And that's the beautiful message is if you run back to God in repentance, he will say, I do not condemn you. I'm not going to remember this terrible, terrible, terrible thing that you did that you remember. 24:06 I'm choosing not to remember it. And I'm encouraging you not to remember it. And from now on, we will deal with it. Because I have donated my blood to you, because I have given you a heart transplant with a new heart. We will treat it like it never happened. It's gone, not pretended. 24:29 It's completely gone. You have a new heart. You have a new blood. Who cares if there was polluted blood in there once upon a time? The Lord has donated his blood for you. He's given you a fresh heart. Who cares if you 24:42 had a polluted heart once upon a time? He's given you a heart transplant and a new heart. That's the message of redemption. Young brother, young sister, whoever asked this question, the greater sin that will get you, like I said, is the one that keeps you down, 24:58 that condemns you. It's not that the more terrible thing you can do that is more terrible than the thing you're talking about is letting Satan condemn you and discourage you. That is far, far more terrible, far more terrible than the terrible thing 25:15 you did. So if you see that as far, far more terrible, run back to God and say, Lord, I truly believe what I heard today. You do not condemn me. You've given me a new heart. You've given me new blood. You've made me a new creation. 25:29 You will remember it no more. So I will remember it no more. Amen. Question six. My friends left church and don't believe in Jesus. I want them to come back. How can I help? Yeah, I've seen this happen with a lot of teenagers now as teenagers move into the 25:47 world. You know, I believe it's sad when the second generation grows up in a godly church and leaves the church for whatever reason, maybe because of lack of godly parenting or maybe because of their own desire to follow the world, which is more likely the case. 26:09 My encouragement to people who are seeing that from the inside looking outside is, there's no need to chase after them or convince them or convince them with religious language or with theology or with arguments or preaching at them and judging them that they're wrong. 26:28 Let your life speak. Let them not just see words from you that are religious words and spiritual words. Let them see the reality of the joy you have of being in the Lord's presence. The fact that even though you fall, you run back and you're stored in that joy. 26:48 Let them see peace and love and patience and kindness and all these fruits of the Spirit. Let them see that you love them and you'll even be with them, but you won't compromise the way Jesus was with the sinners and tax collectors. 27:00 How do the sinners and tax collectors turn to Jesus? Not just because he's preaching at them. We don't see, we actually don't see any sermons of Jesus preaching to those sinners and tax collectors. You just see, we see, we had dinner with them. 27:13 He preaches to the Pharisees. He preaches to the disciples. We don't see him preaching to those people in the Bible at all. And yet, many of them turn, like Mary Magdalene and many others, when he just said, or Matthew the tax collector, when he just said, follow me, 27:30 or Zacchaeus, he said, follow me. And they repented. Why? Because they saw his life. They saw a hero in him. And so let these friends see a hero in you. Let them see somebody who loves, doesn't pass judgment, doesn't condemn them, but has a joy that they're seeking after. 27:49 They're seeking after something. They're seeking after some pleasure. They're seeking after friendship. They're seeking after money, or they're seeking after romance or love or sex. And let them see that you've got a joy and a pleasure at the Lord's right hand that lasts forever and lasts 28:07 much longer than the short-term gratification. And that will make them want to have what you have. I've seen this being more effective. And then as the Lord creates an opportunity, they may ask you, hey, you seem to be more peaceful. You're going 28:21 through this tough situation where this teacher yelled at you, or you're having this difficult time with your parents, or your family's having a difficult time. You're going through this health crisis, or you didn't get this job, or you didn't do well in this 28:34 exam, but you seem peaceful about it. How are you able to do that? Oh, thank you that you asked. Let me tell you why I have come to this point, or why the Lord is helping me get better in this point. Let your life speak first and then your words follow second. Question seven, 28:52 I am insecure about my looks. Either God could have created me fair skinned, or he could have made an environment where everyone is considered beautiful. Why like this? Yeah, this is a sad struggle for many young people. Obviously, consciousness about 29:12 looks, I think in some cultures, a little bit more consciousness about skin color as well, and this last part which said, why didn't God create an environment where everybody could be considered beautiful? I'm here to say, young sister or young brother perhaps, that God has created an 29:31 environment where everybody can be beautiful. Let me share with you a couple of verses, and these are ones, if they're relevant, if something you're struggling with, write these down. Write these down and keep them stored permanently, if this is something you're struggling with. Song 29:44 of Solomon chapter 1 verse 6, Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 6, says almost the same thing that this question just said. Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 6, is the bride talking to the groom. This is saying, do not stare at me, because I am dark skinned. The sun has burned me. I 30:08 have not taken care of my own vineyard, or my own appearance, as it might seem. Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 6, which says, I'm dark skinned, and then you fast forward a few chapters later, and you see what God's perspective is to you, 30:22 when he looks at you. Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 7, three chapters later. Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 7, and this is what you need to tell yourself. This is what God is telling you. Don't listen to what the world is telling you, 30:33 or what your mind is telling you. This is what God is telling you. Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 7, you are altogether beautiful, my darling. There is no blemish in you. That's God's view of you, versus God's, versus my view of myself, or your view of yourself. 30:50 And then there's another verse, when I say this, God has created an environment where all of us can be considered beautiful. You can think about 1 Peter 3 verse 4, you can write this down as well. 1 Peter 3 verse 4, it 31:03 says, let the hidden person of your heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, let your beauty be in the hidden person of the heart, with the quality that can never die, the makeup, so to speak, that is permanent makeup, that doesn't go away, or the beauty that doesn't 31:25 need to be cleaned, and washed, and restored, or refilled, or, you know, need plastic surgery, or need special makeup, because it's permanent, is a gentle and a quiet spirit. And it says this beauty is precious in the sight of the world. So you think the type 31:44 of beauty that God is looking for, He's looking for precious bride somewhere, He's looking for really good-looking bride, somebody who's stunning, somebody who's like a diamond, and He says He finds this precious and beautiful, the one that has a gentle and a quiet spirit. And 32:00 that's the environment in which all of us, men and women, brothers and sisters, can be considered beautiful by having a gentle and a quiet spirit, because that is what is precious to the Lord. Don't let the world dictate your standard of beauty, let the Bible define beauty for you. 32:18 Bible defines beauty as a gentle and a quiet spirit, not by color of skin. It's ridiculous, the way the world looks at these things as beautiful or not beautiful, because, and it's actually in a way illogical, but it's the way human nature is, 32:35 and the way the devil has perverted it, because we can look at, we don't look at dogs that way. Some of the most beautiful dogs are brown-skinned. We don't look at horses that way. So, here in the U.S., the horses that they use, the most special for drawing characters, are chestnut brown. 32:56 So, it's sort of ridiculous that we, as humans, have fallen into the trap, the way the devil has perverted us of looking at that way. So, remind yourself of these verses, and apparently this was even true in the days of the Old Testament, in the Song of Solomon, 33:11 where this bride struggled with this thought, and yet the Heavenly Father is saying, you are altogether beautiful, I see no blemish in you. Amen. Question eight, how can I know when I am living by rules and when I am living by the Spirit? Yeah, 33:33 this is something I've talked to a lot of, a couple of our young people in our church here, also recently, about, you know, as they've given their lives to Jesus and gotten baptized, the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and the importance of not making rules 33:50 and regulations. And some of the questions I get in a teens meeting like this, or in other places, are these questions, can I do this? Can I do that? Is it okay to watch this movie? Is it okay to do that? Is it okay to listen to this music? Is it okay for me to wear this type of jewelry, or these 34:05 type of things? And these are letters, these are rules. The Lord does not want us to live by rules. And sometimes, even in a church setting, on a parent setting, because we're still, while we're under law, we have to follow the rules of our parents. While we are under law, 34:21 while we're under the age of 18, let's say, or living in our home, we have to follow the rules of our parents. We are called to be under law, that's part of what it is. But as you move past that stage, you want to prepare yourself for being filled with 34:33 the Holy Spirit, and letting the Holy Spirit dictate your life. And a great passage for this, if this is something you're struggling with, read 2 Corinthians 3. It's a great passage that has liberated me and many. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 6 says, 34:48 the Lord has made us servants of the new covenant. We hear this word new covenant many times. What is this new covenant? It is not a letter, it is not of the letter, which means not of rules, but of the Spirit. Because the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 35:05 What this is saying is that these rules that you're following, once you go out of it, they're good for you while you're in your home under your parents. But if you continue, if you make rules for yourself, as an 18 year old, 19 year old, 20 year old, 35:19 you make all of these rules, rules, rules, and you try to always live all of these rules, you will lead yourself into condemnation, and it will kill you spiritually. But instead it says, seek to be filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit will give you life. 35:34 The Spirit will give you, okay, should I do this? Should I not? Let me check with the Holy Spirit. Should I be doing this? Where it's not, the Bible is clear about certain commandments, but where the Bible is not clear, live by the Spirit. And it says later in that 35:48 chapter in verse 17, it says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And that's the message of the new covenant, is it's one of liberty, not one of slavery to rules and regulations, but one of liberty. Romans 8, another great 36:02 chapter that you can read that talks about this, says there's no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus. And it says the mindset of the Spirit in Romans 8 verse 6 is life and peace. You will have peace about everything you're doing in your heart. You'll have peace in 36:17 your heart about everything you're doing, if you are seeking to be led by the Spirit. There's a beautiful verse in Isaiah chapter 30, verse 21, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant, which says, you will hear, your ears will hear a word behind you, 36:33 which says, this is the way, walk in it whenever you turn to the right or the left. And that's the picture of the Holy Spirit. It's like a GPS. I like to think of it like a GPS. You're driving down the road in your car, in your parent's car, and your GPS is on. And you're 36:49 not always hearing a word saying, stay in this lane, stay in this lane, move to the left lane, move to the right lane. Yeah, stay here, keep going straight, keep going straight. Okay, that's not the GPS. The GPS will warn you when you're going off track. Okay, 37:02 there's a right turn here you need to take. There's a left turn here you need to take. The rest of the time it's quiet. And that's the spirit of liberty. And let's say you missed the turn because you made a mistake. You fell 37:13 into sin and you missed the turn. What does the GPS do if you want to get connected back to the Holy Spirit? The GPS will reroute you. We'll just say like, okay, you missed the turn. Let's set it right. Yeah, we lost some time, but we'll still get to our destination. 37:27 Let's reroute you. Turn right at the next exit. Get off at the next exit. Let's get back on track. And that's the picture of being filled with the Holy Spirit rather than a constant set of rules and regulations. There's more quietness to it, yet a quiet 37:43 enough warning when I'm about to make a wrong turn or I'm about to do something that's wrong. The Bible says, happy is the man who does not condemn himself. Romans 14 verse 22, I think it says, who does not condemn himself when you want to get loose. So, and at the same time it says 38:00 in James 4 verse 17, for the one who knows the right thing to do, but doesn't do it, that is sin. So look at those two verses together. Happy are you if you don't condemn yourself for what you do. Yet, if the Holy Spirit is convicting you, saying, 38:13 you know the right thing to do over here, but yet you're still not doing it, then that is sin. And that's something that needs to be repented. That's something that needs to be rerouted. The Lord's burden, it says, for us to come to the Lord, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. 38:30 It's not meant to be a heavy burden of rules. It's meant to be a light burden because Jesus is carrying the weight for us. Question nine, I am assured that Jesus has saved me and believe it, but I am occupied by many thoughts inside me which are not sinful, 38:45 but thoughts that push me to be over spiritual and makes me discouraged. Yeah, I think I would say the same thing as I said in the previous question, you know, don't try to manufacture your spirituality. Seek for the liberty of the Spirit. And 39:02 when you think about these spiritual things pushing me into spiritual things, what are spiritual things? Spiritual things, does that mean reading the Bible? Is reading the Bible a spiritual thing? I don't think, I think reading the Bible, the spiritual things are taking the exam when God puts it for you. 39:20 The spiritual things are serving in your home, helping out your mom at home, encouraging a younger sibling. Those are spiritual things, playing a game with a with a younger sibling. That's a spiritual thing, helping out your parents. 39:33 That's a spiritual thing. So why do we read the Bible? We read the Bible to prepare us for spiritual things. So you can think of reading the Bible as studying for the exam, but then you actually have to take the exam. 39:49 When you take the exam, when an opportunity comes and you don't feel like it to help your mom out, you choose to do it because the Bible tells you to bear each other's burdens, to not be shaken by anxiety in a tough moment. Those are the real exams. So 40:03 don't waste your time studying for the exam when you should be taking the exam. So study for the exam, study for the exam and realize what the true spiritual things are. There's going to be a time where the Lord's going to tell you, 40:16 now's not the time to read the Bible. You read the Bible to prepare you for this time, which is to do a truly spiritual thing, which is to help at home, to encourage another, to help in your church or to be kind to a friend or to share and to be unselfish. 40:35 Question 10. How do I be filled with the Holy Spirit, experience God's peace and presence? I don't want to live by feelings, but by faith. How do I hold on to my faith when I'm feeling challenged on all sides? Yeah, this is, as I said earlier, it's very important and I said this in my message. 40:55 The filling of the Holy Spirit is, it's, it transforms you in a way that that's in the spiritual realm. It's not in the soulless realm. It is not feelings. It's not an electrical feeling down your spine. And sometimes you, 41:11 actually almost always, you will have to do, go against your feelings, against what your flesh feels like doing. Feelings are created by God. I remember my brother, one of my brothers, once sharing with me that feelings are like pets, 41:26 like a pet dog. You don't let the pet become the master. So the dog might bark or the dog might whine or the dog might get excited. But when you tell the dog to sit, it sits. Does that make the dog bad? Are you going to kill the dog and say, oh, we don't need dogs. Dogs are too dangerous. 41:44 No, you learn to tame the dog. You learn to tame the dog and you teach the dog who the master is. And that's how I think about feelings, is feelings are very good when they follow their master. And who is that master? My faith is that master. My faith in God is that master. 41:59 And when I choose to worship God, when I don't feel like it, then I actually have a feeling of joy that it will eventually follow when I choose to read the Bible. When I don't feel like it, I will have a feeling of joy where God reveals himself 42:12 to me through the Bible, because I've learned to tame the pet to follow the master. So it's a very revolutionary thing, a transformative thing to be filled with the spirit, not be ruled by feelings. Question 11, I tend to treat God like a genie, 42:30 only approaching him when I need something without the intention of truly seeking him. How can I overcome this mindset? I think we all started out in our relationship with God this way. So don't condemn yourself. You treat God like a genie. 42:44 Of course, it's a worrying thing. If you've been walking with the Lord for 10 years, which none of you, many of you probably have not had about 10 or 20 years, or if you're my age and you're still treating God like a genie and you've been walking with God for 30 years, 42:57 and many Christians are that way. They go their entire life treating God like a genie. And that's a concerning thing. But don't condemn yourself over this. Even the prodigal son, when he came back home, he came back to his father as if his father was a genie. 43:13 He came back to his father saying, there's better food at home. Let me go home for some good food. He didn't come back home. When he first wanted to come back home, he didn't come back home saying, oh, I want to repent. My father loved me. How did I do this to my father? His initial reaction is, 43:27 man, this pig's food tastes like junk. I want some good food. Let me at least go back home for some good food. So even he came back to the father as a genie. But as he walked back home, and as he continued that journey back home, 43:41 he said, father, I've sinned against you. And then the father, as we've read earlier, the father tells the older brother, all I want is for you to be with me. All that I have is yours. The food is part of that, but that's not what you're here for. And so I compare it to this. 43:54 If you look at a young baby or a toddler or a three-year-old or a four-year-old, they're more excited by the toys that their parents get them. So they're like, hey, it's my birthday. What'd you get me? Open up the box. What'd you get me? And they're more excited. 44:10 They get excited by the toys that their parents get. Oh, you got me this new thing. Oh, that's great. Daddy, I love you. You got me this new thing. And they're more fascinated by their toy. And their love is more for the toy than there is for their father and mother. And 44:22 they go come to the father for toys. And they want the father and mother to provide toys. Now, as you grow up as a son and a daughter, and you become a 12-year-old or a 14-year-old or a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old, you're like, I 44:34 don't need toys. I don't need this. I've learned to love my father. If you have a loving relationship with your father and mother, I just like being with them. I just like hanging out with them. Just like the father and the prodigal son story said, you get to be with me. 44:49 All that I have is yours. All the toys are yours. That doesn't matter. But don't, you don't need to come to me for the toys. Just be with me. Let's hang out. Let's have a conversation. And that's the relationship the Lord wants to graduate from, 45:02 graduate us to. So don't condemn yourself that you're coming to the Lord as a genie. It's like the toddler coming to his father for toys. But seek the Lord that you may grow into maturity where you just like hanging out with God, and not for the blessings that he provides 45:22 physically or on this earth or even spiritually, but you just like being with him. Question 12. Is it wrong to have ambitions and desire to reach a certain career and work towards? Often, I hear in the church about setting our mind on the heavenly things and not on earthly things. 45:39 How do I do that when I'm so busy with studies and work? Yeah, no, this is an important misconception that many have. The Bible says in Luke chapter 16, verse 10, he was faithful in a very little thing. He's talking about money. And when you think about money, you're making money at work. So in a way, 45:57 you are called to be faithful with your company's money. So you can read it this way. He was faithful with a very little thing in their company's money, in their job. He's also faithful in much. And he was unrighteous in a very little thing. He's also unrighteous with much. So the Lord is 46:15 almost testing us to be faithful in our job and in our school, in doing our best in our school. Not getting A's necessarily, but doing our best, working our hardest. And if we did our best and we committed to the Lord, then whatever grade we got, it doesn't 46:28 matter. If we did our best at work and we're not lazy, that is being faithful with little. And if you want to be a godly steward in the church or at home, or a future father and mother that's raising disciples in the future, the Lord is going to test you and say, 46:43 are you going to be faithful with little? I'm giving you a little schoolwork now. I'm giving you a little bit of a challenge in your job. Yes, be faithful with that. That is godliness. Colossians 3, 23 and 24 say, whatever you do, 46:57 do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Jesus Christ whom you serve. So what that tells me is that my boss is not my physical boss. My boss at work is 47:15 Jesus Christ. And the paycheck I'm getting is not the physical paycheck I'm getting. It's from him. But it says I must do that work heartily. So we have this misconception that serving God is only in church or reading my Bible. 47:31 I'm so busy with work that I don't get a chance to spend time with God. I'm here to tell you that being at school and being at work is spending time with God if you choose to obey this word, which is I'm working for God. I'm doing my work heartily. 47:48 Yes, I want to be successful in my ambition, not so that that ambition becomes an idol in my life. Making money becomes an idol in my life. Being successful becomes an idol. But so that I can be pleasing to God, so that I can provide for a family in the future, 48:02 and so that I can be working heartily as for God. So working hard at work is spending time with God as long as you know who your boss is. Yeah, I think 13 and 14 are very similar. We can perhaps combine those two. We can read those two together. Yes, that sounds good. 48:20 Question 13, how to stop having negative thoughts and attributing the worst possible for anyone's behavior. And then question 14, I'm very anxious and disheartened over thinking about the same thing even though I want to get rid 48:34 of those thoughts. How can I? Yeah, this is both talking about thoughts that come and plague us. I've always been challenged from this verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5, which says, I want to destroy every speculation, every lofty thing against the knowledge of God and take every 48:57 thought captive. What is a lofty thought? A lofty thought is any thought that says God is not on the throne and I'm on the throne. So what is that? That's an anxious thought. An anxious thought says God is not in control of the circumstance. I have to 49:10 be in control of the circumstance and that's why I'm anxious. That in a way is a lofty thought. And the Lord is saying take that thought captive. Take those negative thoughts captive. Be violent with those. Those in a way are like feelings. They need to be tamed. They need to be taken captive. 49:25 They need to be treated violently and bringing them into subjection to the Lord. One thing that's helped me is to meditate on what Jesus has done for me. When I think about what Jesus did for me on the cross and I really meditate, man, he's pulled me out of that fire as a firefighter. 49:44 He gave me a heart transplant when I was about to die. He gave me a kidney transplant. He donated his blood. He rushed me to the ambulance. I keep meditating on that day after day. It's like I don't need it. I don't have time. Anything else is a bonus in life. Even if I die today, 50:01 even if I get a horrible sickness today, the Lord has done enough for me already spiritually. So I don't need to be anxious about these other things. And it's helped me to replace thoughts of anxiety with meditating on what Jesus has done for 50:15 me. And it gives me perspective that all of these other things don't matter. They don't matter. And the Lord will provide, even in those situations, he'll find a way to use those situations to transform me and those thoughts and things that I'm tempted to be 50:29 anxious for to transform me into his likeness. Philippians 4 verse 8 says, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there's any excellence, anything worthy of praise, you dwell on those things. 50:47 So brother, sister, take captive the negative thoughts, the anxious thoughts, and replace them with whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is pure, what may be good thoughts of things that the Lord has done for you, what your parents have done for you, what Jesus has done 51:03 for you in Calvary, what else he's given you, a home, a job, health. All of these things are good, pure things to dwell with, to replace those things that are negative thoughts that you take captive. Question 15, how to meditate on God's word, not just reading, but to go deeper into it. 51:23 Yeah, this was, for many years, I just read the Bible because my parents told me to read the Bible, and I read it. I wasn't getting out of it. There was one time I read the Bible to set a record with how fast I could read the Bible, but I really got nothing out of it. 51:35 It was a complete waste of my time, to be honest. And now, I can barely get through a chapter in a day. Sometimes I get through half a chapter, and sometimes I get stuck on a verse for many minutes, or I get distracted, and I come back to that verse. 51:49 But at the same time, it's a beautiful place because I've told the Lord, Lord, I do not want to leave this chapter until you speak to me. Not something that I can preach or share in a Bible study or in church, but until you show me something here that will change 52:05 my life today, that will impact my life in the way I treat others, in the way I treat my wife, my children, the way I treat my co-workers, the way I treat friends in church. I want something. Read a chapter. Read it in the Living Bible, which is easier to understand. Read the New 52:21 Testament first, from Matthew through Jude, at least, those chapters, and read it and say, Lord, show me something today that shows me a little bit of who you are and how you want to change me. And I'm not going to leave one, I'm not going to leave this chapter until you 52:40 show me something. And the Lord has faithfully shown me something in every chapter I've read, at least some verse. And that's something that stuck with me and kept me throughout the day. It says in Isaiah chapter 15 verse 4, the Lord is the one who awakens me every day to give me 53:00 the tongue of a disciple and to give me the ear of a disciple, to listen to what he has to say. So wake up every morning saying, Lord, you woke me up today, not just to pick up my phone and see what's the latest on TikTok or check my email. You woke me up today to listen to you. 53:17 And how best can I listen to you? By picking a chapter in the Word to say, what is it that you would have me do today that will change my life? And in that same verse, it says that I might provide an encouraging word to somebody else who's weary or who's struggling. And the 53:31 Lord will use that for you. And I know it's a struggle for many of you to read the Word of God. This is an easy way at a young age, at your age, if you have a phone or a device where you can, instead of grabbing your phone in the morning to check social media or to check email, 53:54 you can start your day. If you don't have, if you don't feel like reading the Bible, at least start here. Start with just going to YouTube and listening to this daily devotional. You can even play it at 1.25 or 1.5 speed if you have less time on your rest of the 54:10 morning. And still the Lord will speak to you. And that's a great way to start, an easy way. We're in a spoiled generation. I think the prophets of the Old Testament were probably looking down on us and like, wow, I wish I had even 10% of what 54:26 you have. So it's a small way that all of you teens can start instilling the Word of God in your life for just seven to 10 minutes a day by listening to this. And I guarantee you it will slowly change your life and will slowly 54:45 get you more interested in reading the Bible as well. Question 16. How do I pray without zoning out or falling asleep during family and church prayer? Yeah, so in order to answer this question, I think we need to define prayer. 55:01 In 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, pray without ceasing. How do I pray without ever stopping? It's an endless prayer. In Luke 18 verse 1, Jesus says, was telling them a parable to show the disciples how they should pray at all times. 55:16 And the analogy used there is a widow who's knocking on the judge's door all the time. And what I see from that is not really, it's like what I said earlier. It's the phone conversation. It's the video call with your friend, with your father, who's your friend saying, 55:35 I just don't have that connection open. And sometimes I'm going to ask you things, but more often I'm going to listen to what you have to say. And a lot of times I'm going to be quiet, but the entire phone call is prayer. 55:47 And I don't want to hang up the phone. I don't want to end the call because then I lose that connection with you. So I'm going to keep the phone line open and that's what prayer is. So let's define prayer in that context. Now, when you define it in that context, 55:57 I want to be praying at all times. Now, I sometimes struggle in long prayer meetings. I also zone out. I also, sometimes I'll zone out when I'm singing a song. Sometimes that's because of my fault, because I got distracted. 56:10 I don't condemn myself. I'm like, okay, let me go back and sometimes help me to just read the song rather than sing it or be conscious of paying attention to what someone is praying. And most often the time is with me and I say, Lord, 56:23 let me pay attention to this because maybe there's something here that will encourage me. But quite often, you know, long prayers may be boring and it's okay to zone out if they're long prayer and they're boring and you're zoning out. But rather than zoning out from that prayer, 56:38 I would say, tune in your heart to be constantly connected with God and say, Lord, I want to, even if I'm zoned out from that person's prayer, which has become a little bit boring and long and repetitive, I want to tune into what you have to say to me. And 56:53 maybe there's something you have to say to me to what they're praying, but maybe not. So don't condemn yourself about that. There's some prayers which are truly boring and long, and it's totally okay to zone out of that. But don't ever zone out your relationship with God. 57:06 Question 17. How do I have spiritual consistency and assurance like Jesus had during his teenage years? Yeah, I think this is the way my formula for it has been run back to God. The righteous man falls seven times, but rises up. 57:21 Consistency is consistency in rising up fast when you fall and staying in that unbroken connection. And what's helped me every day is what I said, Isaiah 50 verse 4, is every morning saying, Lord, you woke me up, speak to me today. And I see that the Lord has a purpose for each day. 57:38 The Bible says that outer man is decaying, but inner man is renewed every day. Paul talks about every day as sort of the atomic unit. And I believe there's something special about that, where I can cry out to the Lord in the morning and say, 57:52 Lord, I really want to depend on you for the rest of the day. And he answers that prayer, and he reminds me of my cry. And then the next day I do it. But the day I forget to do it is the day I start becoming inconsistent. 58:04 So just get more consistent with crying out to God. Maybe you're not, maybe you don't have time to read the Bible every day, but never get out from your bed without, or leave to work or to school without crying out to God. Not as a formula, 58:18 but as a need of helpless dependence, like a baby crying out for milk. Say, I can't get through this day. I really cannot get through this day without your help. And then when you fall, rise back up fast. Those two things have been the secret of consistency for me. Crying out to the Lord 58:32 to preserve me, like it says in Jesus' day, in Hebrews chapter five, it said, he cried out with loud crying and tears to the Father. That was his secret for consistency. And for us who have sinned, when we sin, running back up like the righteous, 58:45 rising up fast. Those are two secrets of consistency for me. Question 18, can my parents' behavior be harmful to me? In such situations, how can I handle them? Whenever I am with them, I backslide and I am unable to read my Bible or just work in a sane manner. 59:05 Yeah, this is, I know not everybody's, first of all, don't blame your parents. The Bible says honor. This is something I just want to spend a couple of minutes on. The Bible says honor your parents, even if they're ungodly, even if they did damage to you 59:20 or you think they did damage to you, honor them all your lives or it will not go well with you. Deeply honor them, deeply choose to love them, deeply choose to respect them. Don't despise them. Don't judge them. The Lord will judge them. More often than not, 59:35 you'll find out later in life that they may have been right, but perhaps they were wrong. Perhaps they were abusive. Perhaps they were too hard and legalistic or they were unloving. So some people here may have unloving parents and may really have had a traumatic childhood. 59:52 I'm willing to consider that, but still, the Lord's command to you is honor your parents. And with that, don't blame your parents for not being able to spend time with God. The difficult time that you're having with your parents is an opportunity for you to, rather than blame them, 1:00:09 to overcome the temptation to irritation, to overcome the temptation to respond back in anger. And that's a spiritual thing. It's not running away to read your Bible. You read your Bible, like I said, to prepare you for those situations 1:00:26 where you can love, you can be an encouragement to your parents. You can be quiet when you're reviled. You can choose to not judge when you're judged, and you can choose to not get angry when they get angry with you. But all in all, 1:00:44 seek to honor your parents regardless. Don't look at the faults in them. There's always, in every situation, even with ungodly parents or unchrist-like parents, God is trying to teach you something. He'll deal with them secondly. 1:00:56 He's trying to teach you something. Never forget that. Question 19. My CFC church is relatively new. It has many people from other churches, and I mostly see a similar kind of spirit present as in a cold church and less of spirit 1:01:11 filled. How can I help? So, you know, while you're a child and a parent in the church, you have to submit to your parents, to the church that they're going. Seek the Lord personally. The Lord will honor you. Jesus went to a dead church when he was a child. 1:01:30 He went to a temple full of Pharisees and people who were probably not connected to God, who thought they were connected to God. So you can think about Jesus himself. In a way, when he went to the temple, in some ways he was hearing the Word of God. 1:01:42 He let the Word of God speak to him, and he grew in wisdom and stature in submission to his parents, even though he was attending a dead church, so to speak. So if you could do it too, but it's not our responsibility to judge. And then when you're 18 or 19 or an adult, 1:02:01 you have the choice to say, Lord, I want to find a spiritual church. And sometimes the most spiritual church in a town may not be a CFC church. Don't think that every CFC church is a spiritual church. Some of them are not. 1:02:15 And as the Lord leads, go to the one that where you're feeling, not where your feelings are being stimulated, but where they are leading you to Christ like this and leading you to lay down your life for others like Jesus did for you, leading you to a spirit for life. What is the 1:02:32 spirit for life? It's one of overcoming sin, one of love, joy, peace, patience, the fruit of the Spirit manifest in you. It's not one of just great giftings or emotional stimulation. Those are distractions. So if you're not finding that in a CFC church and you're an adult, 1:02:50 you can consider that. But while you're a child, do as Jesus did. And when Jesus was 30 years old, he formed his own church with his 12 disciples because the church he was going to was dead. So that's a good example for us. Question 20. 1:03:05 God has given us free will, but God already knows what we will do. So why did God give us a free will? Yeah, I think I answered this question already. God could have created us as robots, and then we'd be no different from the planets. 1:03:20 We cannot understand God with human reasoning. That's a false mistake that many young people who try to rationalize with logic in their mind. It's like a two-dimensional object trying to understand a three-dimensional object. 1:03:34 You have a paper and you have a ball. A paper can never understand a ball. If the ball hits the paper, it just sees a dot or a circle. It can't understand a ball. And in the same way, it's important that we can understand God. It's like you can maybe teach a 1:03:48 dog that there's three bones in front of it, but you can't teach it multiplication. You can't teach it one times one times one is one. And that's why it's impossible for us to understand things like the Trinity or understand even the beginning and end of time, 1:04:01 which are not even a dimension in God's life and not try to rationalize it. I like to think of God having seen our lives like a video replay of a game that's already happened. He knows who's won the game. He knows who scored the goals. He knows who tripped 1:04:22 up and had a foul, who got up when they had a foul and got up and went. But he does not influence that. He does not interfere with the free will of our decision to commit a foul or our decision to help score a goal or our 1:04:37 decision to cause a penalty. He doesn't interfere with that, but he's seen it. And that's the way I like to see free will. And the reason God created free will is so that we can not just be planets and robots. How would your parents like to replace all 1:04:54 your children with four robots? Would that give them joy? If you had four children, that would help them and that would get the work done at home much faster. The dishes would be cleaned much faster. Everything would get done 1:05:06 well really fast. But they'd have zero joy. And they're willing to deal with disobedience, inefficiency, sin. And in the same way, our Heavenly Father is willing to bear with us because he wants sons and daughters. He wants loving sons and daughters. 1:05:24 And that's why he gave us free will so that we choose him. And yes, we can choose to sin. We can choose to reject him. But his desire is for us to choose him. And that could never have been accomplished if he did not give us free will. Question 21. 1:05:38 At what age should I take baptism in the church? So I'm going to answer this question a little bit differently, which is more about what is baptism and why do you take baptism? Baptism is secondary to actually being born again and having new life, 1:05:57 having a heart transplant and that new blood flowing through your way. You've given your life wholeheartedly to Jesus and you're saying, I don't want to sin anymore. I want to follow Jesus. I don't want to sin anymore. That's all you're saying when 1:06:09 you get baptized. But a person who's five years old may have that desire. A person who's 10 years old may have that desire. A person who's 12 years old may have that desire. 15, 20, whatever it might be. So and some of them may sincerely have that desire 1:06:22 and have sincerely given their life to Jesus. We read about many missionaries giving their life to Jesus at a young age. So we can say that they're born. The baptism in a way is more like the celebration of birth, like a birth party. You have a big 1:06:37 party to celebrate the baby's come or you name the baby. You decide to give the baby a name. In some cultures, they don't name the baby until like two months or they don't print the birth certificate, so to speak, until six months later. Or they don't have a big party to invite guests 1:06:50 over to celebrate their baby until six months later. That's the way I like to look at baptism. Baptism is the celebration of it. It's the certificate of your birth, of your new birth. It's the naming ceremony. It's not so much the actual birth itself. And even sometimes in sports, 1:07:12 there's a championship moment where the Lord celebrates when you come back to Him. But a few months later, they give out the rings from that ceremony. So you can think of that as baptism. So baptism is just a testimony or a confirmation 1:07:25 of something that might have happened days earlier or months earlier or even years. So I get less caught up with baptism. It is a command that we're called to follow, but it is far more important to make sure that you have a new birth. So now when it comes to the qualifications for baptism, I would say 1:07:43 it is just saying, it is not, oh, I need to be perfect. I need to work out these things. All you're saying is, I'm enrolling in the school of Jesus Christ. I want Jesus to help me write my spiritual ABCs. I can't do it on my own. 1:07:58 I don't want to sin anymore. I want to follow Jesus. Jesus will never cast you out. He will never expel you. That's something I want to reassure you. You can drop out of the school of Jesus Christ. You can drop out anytime you want. That means in an act of rebellion saying, 1:08:13 I've seen this. I don't want Jesus' help. I want to go the way of the world. That's not sinning. That's rejecting in an act of rebellion. But if you make a mistake writing your ABCs, that's like, you can think of that 1:08:26 as falling into sin. Jesus is not going to condemn you. He's not going to expel you. He's going to help you correct it and help you write it the right way and erase it. That's repentance. But that's very different from rebellion. 1:08:38 So it's very important for you to be secure that Jesus will not cast you out unless you choose to rebel against him once you know him. As many times as you fall, he will not cast you out as long as you just keep coming back in repentance. 1:08:53 And that's all you're testifying with baptism is, I'm not perfect. I don't want to sin anymore. And if I sin, I will bounce back up and I'll follow Jesus. Now, as we sing the song, I've decided to follow Jesus, the cross before me, the world behind me. 1:09:10 That's a good thing to ask yourself before you get baptized. Am I really saying the world behind me, only Jesus in front of me? And sometimes a five-year-old, I'd say most of the time, a five-year-old can't say that with maturity. What does the world mean to a five-year-old? 1:09:25 So there's no sacrifice involved with saying, I'm choosing to follow Jesus. It's a good thing. My parents want me to, not much of a sacrifice for me. And so I think there comes an age where you're mature enough, you know, around puberty or so, 1:09:40 where you're mature enough to make a decision to say, I'm choosing. There's a sacrifice involved with me saying the world behind me and the cross before me. I'm not going to dictate an age. I've seen that happen generally in high school years. 1:09:57 Sometimes in the latter half of high school years, high school is essentially like a 9th to 12th grade type, where people are truly making a sacrifice when they say the world is behind me and the cross is before me. For some, it might be much later, like 22, where they say, I've really 1:10:13 come to a point where the world is behind me and the cross is before me. The most important thing though is don't do it because of pressure, either because of peer pressure or parental pressure. Oh, my friend got baptized. My cousin got 1:10:25 baptized. My brother got baptized at this age, so I need to get baptized. My parents are forcing me to get baptized. That's the wrong reason to get baptized. That's absolutely the wrong reason to get baptized. Even if you have a friend, your closest friend in church gets baptized, 1:10:39 don't get baptized until you can say, Lord, I really want to follow you and truly believe the cross before me and the world behind me. But there is actually no other qualification. Don't complicate the qualification for it beyond that. 1:10:54 If you can just say, I want to follow Jesus. I don't want to sin anymore. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to say, oh, I need to sort these things out in my life and then I'll take baptism. If I took that decision, I would still not be baptized because 1:11:07 there's still things today that I need to sort out in my life because I can't do it on my own. So the only requirement to be baptized is your willingness to say, I don't want to sin anymore, willing to put the world behind me and the cross before me. 1:11:22 Amen.
