THE GOSPEL MESSAGE
 
            Volume 50   Number 12                                                         						December 2008
Editor and Publisher - Thomas W. Woody
What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Ten Points for Faithful Young People to Follow

Thomas W. Woody

 Introduction: What Does God Want Me to Do? What is my purpose in Life? Our Creator has graciously provided us with the answers to these vital questions. Consider the following ten points on how we ought to live on this earth so that we will have no part in the Lake of Fire, but instead have a home in Heaven forever!

  1. Fear God – He is Almighty!
    2.
    1. Ecclesiastes 12:13,14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
    2. Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
    3. 1 Peter 2:17 “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”

  2. Depart From Evil- It is for your own good!
    3.
    1. Job 28:28 “And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”
    2. Proverbs 16:6 “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”
    3. Proverbs 16:17 “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.”
  3. Honor Your Father & Mother – You will always be glad you did!
    1. Proverbs 1:8,9 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
      2.
    2. Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.”
  4. Be Ye Holy – For God is Holy!
    5.
    1. Proverbs 1:10 “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” – (Don’t Conform!)
    2. 1 Peter 1:14-16 “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
      3.
    3. Hebrews 12:14 “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:”

  5. Keep Yourself Pure – Your Body is God’s Temple!
    6.
    1. Hebrews 13:4 “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
    2. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”
    3. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

  6. Seek A Godly Mate: “Two Shall Become ONE!”
    7.
    1. Deuteronomy 7:3-4 “Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. “For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.”
    2. 1 Kings 11:1-4 “But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites- from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David.”
    3. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.”
    4. 1 Corinthians 7:39 “A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.”
  7. Study Your Bible – It is Your Spiritual FOOD!
    8.
    1. Psalms 119:9-11 “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!”
    2. Deuteronomy 17:18-20 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. “And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, “that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.”
      3.
    3. Acts 17:11 “These were more fair-minded [noble] than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
  8. Pray – God Wants To Hear His Children!
    9.
    1. Luke 18:1 “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,”
    2. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
    3. Ephesians 6:17-20 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
  9. Put The Church First: Nothing is more important!
    10.
    1. Matthew 6:33,34 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
    2. Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
    3. Hebrews 10:24,25 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of

       ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
  10. Set Your Affection on Things Above – That is our true Home!
    11.
    1. Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; " but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
    2. Colossians 3:1-4 “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
    3. Philippians 3:20,21 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

CONCLUSION:

You are only young once. So if you are only young once, should you waste these days sowing wild oats which will bring regret and bitterness later, or redeem your precious life by giving it to the One Who freely gave it to you and then gave His Own life for you?

Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”:”

~ P.O. Box 148, Brighton, IL  62012-0148
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