Last week we have talked about How we can know God and His will. first of all, God can speak to us through the Bible. For those who want to obey God and His will, they must have and they must know God’s word.
do you have His word in your life? do you know what he wants from you? this is the key chain that I always bring w/ me.
this is what Psalms 119:11 says: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
if you have the Word of God in your heart it will help you not to sin against Him. what is sin? it is any act of rebellion against God. so if you have and if you know His word, it will guide you / it will tell you what to do / how to please God / what God wants us to do. and you will not sin against Him because you have kept / hid His word in you heart. amen!
Got Milk? what do you do? drink it! Got His word? read it!
(song) Milk! drink that milk... eat the word and get strong
and we have two more ways to know Him and to know His will.
God also revels Himself to us through His creation. every thing we have right now is from God. EVERYTHING!!
water, air, cloud, sky, animals, fishes, sun, moon and stars, grass, tree, fruits...
everything comes from God is good! amen? they tell me how much God loves me and cares for me. and he is still in control. so I know that my God is a good God / good father who gave me all the good things.
do you really believe that your God is good? God is GOOD! All the time! (x2)
we can also know him and his will through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. He has come to dwell in us
* to regenerate / makes us spiritually alive
* he grants the assurance of our salvation
* he sanctifies us / achieves holiness
-the Bible says: be holy because I am holy
* he empowers us spiritually
* he leads us and guides us
* he assists in worship and prayer
Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
* he implements adoption
-he is telling us that we are God’s children
* he communes and fellowships
-he offers friendship and fellowship to God’s people
* he anoints God’s people
* he seals
-he sets His seal or mark of ownership on the convert
-you are mine / you belong to me
* and he teaches us and reminds us
-reminds us what? his word / teachings
-Jesus says in John 14:26
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
even right now, the Holy Spirit is helping us to understand His word and telling us that we are not our own. we are not the owner of our body. we belong to him.
(song) Here I stand
Paul says that do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? he also says that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor. 6:15-20
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." 17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
This teaching about sexual immorality and prostitutes was especially important for the Corinthian church because the temple of the love goddess Aphrodite was in Corinth. This temple employed more than a thousand prostitutes as priestesses, and sex was part of the worship ritual. Paul clearly stated that Christians are to have no part in sexual immorality, even if it is acceptable and popular in our culture.
Yes! it is acceptable and popular in our culture to have sex outside of marriage. everybody does. why not me? this is a research on sex, teens, and public schools by NBC.
SEXUALITY TEENS AND SEX / RESEARCH REVIEW
Pauley, J. (1995). Sex, teens, and public schools. NBC.
¡¤ One million U.S. teenagers become pregnant each year.
¡¤ U.S. has highest rates for teenage pregnancies, abortions, and child bearing in the industrialized world.
¡¤ In 1970, 70% of U.S. teenage births were to married teenagers.
¡¤ By 1990, 70% of U.S. teenage births were to unmarried teenagers.
The U.S. spends $34 billion a year in welfare payments to families headed by teenage mothers.
As mentioned in the documentary, ¡áNobody, not politicians, not pastors, nor parents know what to do about it.¡á The following statistics are staggering:
¡¤ Eighty-three percent of all babies born to teens are born to poor, low-income girls.
¡¤ One third of teen mothers gives birth to a second baby within two years.
¡¤ Two thirds of all teenage girls who become pregnant have been sexually or physically abused.
¡¤ Seven out of ten teens become sexually active while in high school.
¡¤ One out of four sexually active teens contracts a STD while in high school.
¡¤ Four out of ten girls will become pregnant while teenagers.
¡¤ Two out of ten girls will become teenage mothers.
¡¤ Eight out of ten teen mothers drop out of school.
¡¤ Eight out of ten of their children will grow up in poverty.
Pregnancy was accidental for about 60% of pregnant female teenagers. About 40% planned or hoped for their pregnancy.
The explanation from some who were interviewed is ambivalent. Cynthia Davis is an attractive 9th grade dropout, a fifteen-year-old, white female. She says, ¡áI never thought it could happen to me. We have done it so often. The month we slowed down and were hardly touching each other...I never thought it would happen to me...Yes, I wasnt using any contraceptive...Yes, I kinda, not really, wanted to get pregnant. I didnt think it could happen to me; you know, it never had before. But I thought, maybe a baby would help bring us back together and stop the fighting between us.¡á
Many young mothers talk about not having anyone to talk to about preventing pregnancies that come too early in life. Shares one teen mother, ¡áI could never have talked to my mother about it.¡á
When is sex right?
Keep yourself pure for God and also for your future wife or husband. and remember this! your body belongs to God, not to yourself, Amen? Your body is the temple of the HOLY Spirit, not evil spirit, Amen? my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I must keep myself pure and holy for God and His glory. May God bless you!
