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 Sermon > Theme Words of Life |
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Title |
The Keys to Studying Well(7) - The Keys to Studying Well (7) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
James 3:17-18, Proverbs 9:10 |
Date |
2011-03-20 |
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Passage
[James 3:17-18]
"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."
[Proverbs 9:10]
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
Introduction
When you gather and concentrate sunlight with a magnifying glass, the focused sunlight can even burn paper.
A famous business consultant says people's concentration can also show such great power.
Especially, concentration can bring out your potential that God has hidden inside you.
If you can utilize your potential to the fullest, you can become the best in your field.
What is your dream?
Why don't you practice this message you hear with the determination that you will fulfill your dreams?
Then, just as the sunlight will be focused on one point through the magnifying glass, your heart and thoughts and strength will be focused on one point.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will show the amazing power of concentration and give glory to God in your own areas.
Continuing from the last session, let us talk about the ways to remove your idle thoughts.
To get rid of idle thoughts, first, you have to keep away from the things that can input untruths in your memory device.
In the last session, I said that you need to try to control yourself on using TV and computers, which are the two major things that input untruths in you.
In order to stop inputting any more untruths, you should also try to have only good friends.
It's because in many cases you come in contact with untruths through your friends.
And it'd be more desirable if you Manmin students can lead sound and healthy meetings among your friends.
Also, when you take a rest after studying for a while, you should avoid Internet PC rooms or some streets that have adult entertainment.
Instead, you can visit parks, museums, or musical concerts where you can come in contact with nature and learn many good things.
In order to cut off the idle thoughts, after all, you need to have determination to cut off what you have to cut off.
You can also ask your parents to help you if you find it too hard to control your mind by yourself.
You can also ask God for His grace and strength by praying for a certain length of time everyday and maybe offering a time of fasting every week.
God will surely help you.
If you receive the fullness of the Spirit, you will gain the power to control yourself, and your desire to get worldly things will decrease.
You will also more clearly feel in your heart the voice of your guardian angel telling you to see and hear only truth.
Hebrews 1:14 says, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?"
Your angels sent by God always plead with you to keep you from darkness.
You should not see or hear the things that you are not supposed to see and hear without even trying your best, saying that you cannot do it.
In order to get rid of idle thoughts, secondly, you should get rid of the untruths that are already input in your memory device.
Now most of you students have cut off the unnecessary things and are studying hard.
But sometimes those things that you used to see and enjoy might come back to your memory.
You don't accept any more untruths, but you still have remaining untruths that have been input.
Now, you don't have to be puzzled or discouraged, but you can just start erasing those things one by one.
When they purify a polluted river, how do they do it?
First, they block the flow of the dirty water from coming into the river.
Then, they remove the pollutants, the trash and things that cause foaming and bubbles.
Moreover, they put clean water and oxygen, and they also plant grasses that help with the purification.
If we purify our memory 'device' in the same way, it will finally be cleaned.
We first block the untruths, and then we begin to remove the untruths that are already input one by one.
Furthermore, as we fill our memory with the knowledge of truth, it can be purified more quickly.
Your head will be cleared, and you won't have any more idle thoughts.
But the knowledge of untruth that is in your memory device cannot be erased just like you delete a computer file or you erase pencil writing with an eraser.
Then, what do you have to do?
You have to change the thoughts and feelings.
Then, the knowledge will become increasingly dim.
Whenever you have thoughts and feelings of untruth, you have to change them into thoughts and feelings of truth.
For example, nowadays, so much knowledge of the untruths concerning sex is input in the students nowadays.
They come in contact with those things on TV, the Internet and from other friends, and these untruths are stored in them.
Since in these days the people are so steeped in evil, sex has just become another form of enjoyment and pleasure.
Companies release countless products and commercials related to sex.
TV dramas or movies describe situations of unfaithfulness and lawlessness as something romantic.
Also, the overly exposed bodies of actresses or singers is referred in the media as being 'beautiful' and 'gorgeous'.
Young children whose values have not yet been firmly formed and who are raised in this kind of world might develop a distorted understanding and concept of sex.
They look at the opposite sex as an object of lust.
They might accept sexually extreme things that they see.
Moreover, they are supposed to dislike and hate sins, but instead they accept them as being something beautiful and good.
They don't consider sins to be sins.
Inappropriate knowledge and feelings about sex give rise to curiosity or lust.
Idle thoughts come to their mind when they see the opposite sex.
Therefore, you have to erase the wrongful knowledge and feelings that you have input until now.
For example, how should the boys look at the girls?
1 Timothy 5:2 says, "...the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity."
As written, boys should regard friends of opposite sex just as though they were your sisters who are born of the same parents, in all purity.
If your own sister becomes the object of lust of some strangers, how heartbreaking it is!
You should value and keep all the sisters who are your own family in the Lord like your own sisters.
Also, you should consider the lust towards opposite sex to be as dirty and horrible as maggots in Hell.
This is not an exaggeration.
In fact, this lust and pleasure are the main cause of leading the souls to death.
Also, it is like a thief that steals time for studying and destroys precious dreams.
Let me give you an allegory to help you drive away your curiosity towards sex and temptation for friends of opposite sex.
Sometimes you find stories in movies like the one that follows.
The hero of the movie falls in love with a woman.
But one day, this man discovers that this woman is a monster who is after his life.
Or, in other cases, the heroin of the movie gives her everything to a man believing that he is a wonderful person who loves her so much.
But in fact, he is a vampire who is after her blood.
Going out with a boyfriend or girlfriend for pleasure is same as giving yourself to such a monster, or becoming a monster yourself for the other person.
It is an act that leads each other to Hell and to eternal death.
How terrifying it is!
Therefore, I hope you will always be on alert and change your wrong feelings and thoughts about untruthful things. |
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