Good day chosen one, highly favoured by God and loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the day the Lord has made and we shall in it rejoice and be glad. I believe you are doing well today.
It is with excitement and joy to introduce this week’s new topic, Living right for God.
Yes, living right for God. It is important to live right and be holy so that you’re able to worship Him in truth and in spirit (John 4:24). What is living right for God? Living right is living a life with no sin, it is righteous living. Oh, wait let me not confuse you with big words. Righteousness is living right in the eyes of God by doing and living the right way as God requires you. Living a righteous life very important as a child of God as it aligns you with the will of our father. Remember how Jesus would often mention that he’s doing his father’s will? Yes that’s the will we are being aligned with.
As a young person it is easier to fall into sin because of the influence around you through social media and the people in your life don’t really understand the life you want to live especially when you tell them that you don’t want to date because you’re waiting and praying for your husband. When you tell them that, “mmmm oh my”, are the replies you get from them. I believe with the shock in your eyes, it means you’ve been there as well.
There’s people around you or let’s say your tertiary buddies or colleagues keep persuading you to go clubbing and let your body loose since festive is already here, at that time you want to build a relationship with God and spend time your loved ones. Ahh yes, I know you asking yourself how is dating and clubbing related to sin but worry not, I’ll tell you in just a moment.
Living right for God means you are separating from sin by not having pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth as well as other sins such as: idolatry, dishonesty, murder, adultery, and blasphemy, sexual immorality, hatred, and drunkenness. The two sins that have young people wrapped around it is sexual immorality and drunkenness as those go hand in hand and they carrying dishonesty and hatred with them. Yes that’s correct, one sin carries another sin. It’s a chain and when that chain locks you in, you become blind and deaf to the Gospel preached around you because you see nothing wrong being in sin, actually you don’t even realise that you’re living in sin.
I promised to explain how dating and drunkenness are part of sin.
Firstly let’s look at the history of the word “dating” because even today the roots of where dating comes from still show in the lives of young people. In the mid-1950s going to the 1960s when man would book nights out with woman for fleshly pleasures, they would call that ‘date/dating’ because it was a set date for a night of fleshly pleasures and during that century people would get married through courtship. During those days courtship was very much effective then. In the early 1970s the term “date” was now being introduced as being casual and rebellious, as love that’s free and wild with exploring different people, and this kept to evolving to the 1980s till today yet it’s meaning is the one in the 1950s going to the 1960s.
When this term was introduced in the early 1970s in was portrayed as causal and rebellious and the question is: what is casual and rebellious is now rebellious and casual to who? A person who is rebellious is rebellious to God or the leader in their lives and casual means being free to anyone and anyhow. Drunkenness causes you to lose sense of yourself and when you lose sense of yourself, you lose who you are and tend to do sinful foolish acts which cause you to have regret and self-condemnation; which may lead to depression. You are losing faith in God of which that’s what the devil ultimately wants from you.
Remember we said that one sin carries another sin and sin starts in the mind then manifest in the physical, the moment you think of telling lies and as you think of them, they end up manifesting in your life. When you tell lies even your actions are that of a dishonest person. So one sin connects you to another sin, it’s a chain.
In order to avoid sin, you need to study the word of God and let it be in your thoughts so you don’t think of sin and you’ll be able to live right for God. I know your friends/colleagues will call many times for you to go clubbing and go out on dates with this guy and that girl, then have fun there and there with them of which all that may lead to sin thus causing you slip from your spiritual growth. As a child of God you can still have and enjoy your youth as young as you are.
I wish to tell you how you can enjoy being a young person in the house of our father but I’m not going to let you lose on this great opportunity-come to our church Green Pastures Christian church in Braamfischerville, Fullmoon avenue 8062, Soweto, and meet ‘Judah-Asa’, our young people who have great plans for the year to come, ensure you don’t miss their activities they’ll be having, and then you’ll learn and know how to have fun as a Christian.
Here's how you stay away from sin:
• By devoting yourself in the ways of the Lord
• By surrounding yourself with people who are living right for God
• By praying and worshipping
• By serving God
• John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
• Romans 6:13: ""Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God... and use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God"
• Romans 6:12-14: "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions... Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace".
• 1 Corinthians 15:34: "Awake to righteousness, and do not sin".
• 1 Timothy 6:11: "But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness".
• 2 Timothy 2:22: "Run from anything that gives you the evil thoughts that young men often have, but stay close to anything that makes you want to do right".
• Matthew 5:29-30: "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out... if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off" (interpreted metaphorically to mean taking drastic action to avoid sin
By doing all those points mentioned above you’ll surely live a righteous life.
When you are living a righteous life, you’re able to do our father’s will with a clean and pure heart also you’re able to focus on certain aspects of your life as it propels you to grow as an individual. And the Holy spirit dwells in a clean and pure heart that’s filled with a zeal to live a righteous life and you become prone to experience his presence on you. That makes you a living witness of God’s power. When you experience his presence in your life you, will be testifying about his goodness and love that endures forever.
You know what’s the best part about love that endures forever? It’s not seasonal love, I mean God’s love isn’t like human love that’s seasonal and wearies over time. Oh my I get so excited talking about God’s love but I’ll calm myself down so we continue with righteous living. If you haven’t experienced His love, try living a righteous life with a pure heart and you’ll see how great is our God. As we’re saying that His love is not seasonal it is the same with living right for God, it is not seasonal it is every day and every season we continue to live for him.
When I say every season we live right for God, we include even festive season. Yes festive season. A mind that’s still conformed to the standard of the world will say “festive is the time to enjoy life for that moment because December comes in a year and YOLO (You only live once)”.
That statement comes from a person who goes to a Christian church whose mind is still conformed to the standard of the world. Yes, I agree you’re a young person who is beautiful and handsome and you thinking about the vacation you booked with your family and now here we are talking about right living for God, you can still go enjoy family vacation and still live right for God.
Let’s stop here for today. We will continue talking again in few days’ time, for now I must prepare for a video I’ll be posting on Tuesday Morning, oh I’m so excited about it, can’t even contain it!
Let’s pray: Father Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for teaching us today about sin and how we can live holy life so your presence may abide with us. Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for so much love you’re showing in our lives. May this week be filled with your grace and love, we give you honour and praise, there’s no other God who is like you, Lord Jesus Christ we thank you, amen and amen. Shalom!