Snow White Series

The Bible passage we just read is the verse that our older youth uses to identify themselves. They call themselves the 412 Youth Group (because of I Timothy 4:12) and essentially, they use that verse to declare that they want to be used by God, and they don’t want their AGE to get in the way of that. Notice what the verse said: In order to be used by God (in spite of your age). You need to set an example for others in your speech, in your conduct, in how you love people, in your faith, … and IN YOUR PURITY.

Now PURITY is a really important concept to God. In the book of Habakkuk 1:13 (an Old Testament prophet) we’re told that “(God’s) eyes are TOO PURE even to look on evil.” Thus, if you want to be used by God. you need to focus on purity just like He does!!! Otherwise, HE can’t even LOOK at you! In fact, Jesus said YOU can’t even look at God unless you are pure of heart. Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8

(PAUSE) Now, the focus of our sermon series, are the beads used on a “witness bracelet”. The BLACK bead stands for the deep darkness of SIN; the RED bead stands for the BLOOD of Christ; the BLUE for the waters of baptism; And now, the WHITE bead for PURITY.

But now Purity…, what does that mean?

ILLUS: Years ago, at the first church I served we took our youth group to Arizona to do a VBS at an Indian Reservation. While we were there we took the opportunity to cross over into Mexico to do some shopping and sightseeing. But one of the things we warned the youth about was: “Don’t Drink The Water!” WHY NOT? Because the water south of the border is contaminated. It was filled with unfriendly bacteria that causes things like nausea, vomiting, fever, and diarrhea. In short: The water was NOT PURE. One of the girls apparently wasn’t paying attention. She drank the water, and allowed that IMPURE liquid to get inside of her, and so we had to spend a few days Phoenix before she was ready to travel again.

Here’s the deal: God is telling us - Don’t drink the water; Don’t allow the contamination of this world to get INSIDE of you - because it will make you sick. IT’LL HURT YA!

In fact, God was SO SERIOUS about this, that after He freed Israel from slavery in Egypt He gave them explicit instructions on what they were to do to PURIFY the Promised Land when they got there.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations… and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.” Deuteronomy 7:1-5

In other words – don’t drink the water. Purify the land you’re about to enter. Purge the land of everything that would make you sick. And those same kind of instructions… still holds for us. Purge your life of the impurities of this world. Get rid of the influences that will make you sick… spiritually.

Now, there are people who have a problem with that. They say – “I can’t live a pure life and I never have. I’ve always been impure… I always will. So I just accept that. I’ve always gotten drunk; I’ve always done drugs; I’ve always slept around; I’ve always cursed like a sailor. That’s just WHO I am!”

In fact… they might think that they might have been born that way. The adulterer will say “I can’t help myself. I’ve always slept around. That’s just WHO I am”. The man with child pornography on his computer will say “I can’t help myself. That’s just the way I’m wired.” And the homosexual says “I can’t help myself, I was just born that way.”

I CAN’T HELP MYSELF. I CAN’T BE PURE. THAT’S JUST WHO I AM. I WAS BORN THAT WAY. And Jesus says “I understand. You tell me you that’s just who you are. You tell me you were BORN THAT WAY. Fine… let me help you be BORN AGAIN.”