Pure Choices

Pure Life

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Joshua Nelson (Host), Brittany Hill-Morales, Kimberly Douglas, Kory Douglas, Xavier Morales

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Series Code: PC

Program Code: PC000086A


00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues.
00:03 Parents are cautioned that some material
00:04 may be too candid for younger children.
00:38 Hello, and welcome once again to Pure Choices.
00:41 I'm your host Pastor Joshua Nelson.
00:43 I'm so glad you decided to join us once again.
00:46 We have a great one for you today as usual
00:49 and this one is entitled, Pure Life.
00:52 We're going to talk about how to live the life
00:54 that God wants us to live, all right?
00:56 So before we get into this powerful discussion,
00:59 let's just pause for a moment to pray.
01:01 Heavenly Father God, we just ask
01:03 that you will be with us now as we discuss this topic.
01:06 In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
01:08 Amen. Amen.
01:10 All right, let's introduce our panel.
01:11 To my left, I have chaplain Xavier Morales,
01:14 so glad he's here with us today
01:15 and his wife, Brittany Hill-Morales,
01:17 so glad she is here.
01:18 Also, we have the Douglas Family,
01:20 Pastor K.P. Douglas,
01:21 and his wife, Kimberly Douglas.
01:22 So glad you're all here for this discussion
01:25 because we really want to talk about
01:27 what are the ideals, okay?
01:28 That's the first question.
01:31 What really is the life that God wants us to live?
01:33 You know, we talk about purity all the time, pure choices,
01:38 what is the ultimate choice?
01:39 What does the ultimate pure life look like
01:42 and so let's just start there and maybe just all of us can,
01:45 I guess, expound on what we feel,
01:47 according to God's word of how he wants us to live.
01:51 Let's start with...
01:52 I'll start with Xavier and we'll work around.
01:56 There is a lot of...
01:57 KP said about that, living a pure life.
02:00 You know, perfectionist are way out of the question
02:01 until the Second Coming
02:03 but I think for me, for example,
02:06 my steps towards a better life or pure life
02:10 was to remove elements
02:11 that were obstructing my view of God
02:13 or my relationship with him
02:15 such as, you know, certain movies I used to own,
02:18 certain CDs or music that I used to have,
02:21 the elements that completely hindered me
02:23 or kind of stunted my growth with Christ.
02:26 Okay.
02:28 So there were some things
02:29 that you had to cut out of your life.
02:31 Okay. All right.
02:32 I would also add
02:33 as another thing of living the pure life
02:35 is being careful of your body, being mindful of it,
02:39 avoiding the substances that will pollute it
02:42 and not make you be pure
02:44 and that will kind of distort the way you think
02:46 or how you act or even how you just simply live,
02:50 that's also important according to God's Word.
02:52 Okay.
02:54 For some reason, the first word
02:56 that came to mind for me was joy.
02:58 Making those decisions and doing those things
03:02 that are in line with God's Word
03:05 that brings joy
03:06 and that's just, you know,
03:08 happiness that comes and goes with joy that's...
03:09 Amen. All right.
03:13 I think that of course, purity is a two-sided coin.
03:17 On one side, God does the real purifying.
03:21 He is the only one who can truly clean.
03:23 On the other side, I am reminded that God says,
03:25 you know, to Aaron and his sons,
03:27 "Purify yourselves."
03:28 You know, "Consecrate yourselves,"
03:29 which is remove all things that,
03:32 you know, will defile, you know.
03:34 And I know for me
03:35 that didn't necessarily mean that,
03:37 you know, my purifying myself
03:38 equals God's purifying or righteousness.
03:41 To me living the purified life means
03:43 doing whatever is necessary
03:45 to put myself in a position
03:47 for God to do the work that He has to do in my life.
03:50 Amen.
03:51 I think for me, you know,
03:53 ultimately a pure life has come in,
03:55 you know, for me in making a pure choice
03:57 which would be to choose Jesus every day.
04:00 And the practical thing, of course, is that
04:02 we kind of make mistakes,
04:04 we're going to live broken lives.
04:06 We're going to always make the pure choice,
04:10 but I look at, you know the verses like,
04:12 you know, if you confess your sins,
04:13 he is faithful and just to forgive your every sin
04:16 and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
04:17 You know, I think that,
04:19 Ellen White says in Steps to Christ
04:20 making that initial choice
04:22 for God to clean you up, you know,
04:24 and allowing Him to be the one that's cleaning you
04:26 and if you are, you know, ultimately,
04:28 that's going to be the question,
04:29 "Are you saying yes to Jesus every day?"
04:31 You know, and that's what He is looking for,
04:33 people who are just saying yes to Him in the morning
04:36 when they arise, "Give me, Jesus," you know,
04:38 and when they go to sleep,
04:40 is that the circle of your life?
04:43 Are you looking for him for the parameters
04:44 of how you live your life?
04:47 And I think we want to be careful
04:48 even in the way we say it
04:50 because we don't want people at home to think
04:52 it's about getting up and literally every morning
04:54 and saying, you know, "I give myself to you, God,"
04:57 which, yes, we are doing
04:58 but, you know, Christ is more concerned
05:00 about our heart posture,
05:01 you know, he is not really concerned about
05:03 you rehearsing lines that work for someone else.
05:05 You know, it's just all about that mindset that says,
05:08 "What do you really think of yourself
05:09 in a relationship with Christ?"
05:11 Now, just like Ellen White says,
05:12 as a matter of fact, you know, we talk while
05:14 what it looks like, Ellen White says,
05:15 "The closer you get to God the more,
05:17 you know, it is revealed to you just how messed up you are."
05:20 And so a person who is close to God
05:22 who is living that pure life,
05:24 to me, may look more humble, be more humble,
05:27 because they realize who they are
05:29 but they would still seek out the joy
05:31 because in seeing who they are,
05:33 they are encouraged knowing that God still works with them
05:37 knowing just how blessed they are.
05:38 Yeah, that's just good
05:40 because could you ever really say,
05:41 "I'm living a pure life?"
05:42 I don't think anybody can really say that
05:44 because you're saying.
05:45 You're going to look at yourself and say,
05:46 "Man, I'm not all that great."
05:48 But if you're practicing making pure choices,
05:50 then, you know, that you will be reflecting the life
05:52 that God wants you to live.
05:54 Did I... Do you want to say... Okay.
05:56 All right, so let's go ahead and talk about
05:57 this brokenness.
05:59 Let's talk about
06:00 what are some practical steps that people can take to truly,
06:04 you know, get in position if you would
06:07 or to be able to overcome all the struggles
06:10 that we know we have faced and are facing even now.
06:13 What are some steps?
06:15 Let's start with one of the ladies.
06:16 Yeah, tell me, give me some steps, tips, I guess.
06:20 Tips.
06:21 When Xavier and I were dating,
06:23 one of the things that we did
06:25 was to refrain from kissing on the lips.
06:29 That's what we did because we both knew our pasts.
06:32 We knew that we would be more, I guess, more inclined to fall
06:38 if we were kissing
06:39 because it always leads to just wanting more.
06:42 So we decided not to do that
06:44 so that we would be, I guess, in a better position
06:47 for when we got married to be more pure
06:49 because we had that moment of celibacy.
06:51 So basically staying away from like triggers.
06:53 Staying away from triggers, yes.
06:55 Yeah, you got to know yourself
06:56 and what it is that triggers you
06:58 to go down that dark place that you don't want to go down
07:01 and you have to really be honest to yourself and say,
07:03 "I don't want to go down that road
07:05 and I need to put some safeguards in."
07:07 'Cause I mean, that takes some maturity
07:08 but you already know, so real,
07:09 I mean, let's be honest, that's tough,
07:11 I mean, I don't know. I don't think it was hard.
07:13 You're doing yourself a lot, okay.
07:14 'Cause I had to pray every day.
07:18 Fasting and prayer, some things only come by that.
07:21 I think, you know, in looking back at,
07:24 you know, I guess, pure choices
07:26 and how to make pure choices in relationship,
07:29 I really have to say, "Thank God for my parents"
07:32 because, you know, they set that example.
07:38 They're not perfect but they set the example of
07:42 what a healthy relationship looks like
07:46 and they gave me some things to aspire to.
07:48 Sure.
07:50 And so, you know,
07:51 I guess in looking at their relationship now,
07:55 I started to identify different things
07:58 that I would like in my own relationship
08:02 and saying yes to some things
08:04 and saying no emphatically to some things,
08:07 you know, helped with, you know, maintaining purity.
08:10 Sure. Yeah.
08:11 And I'll just say that,
08:13 I thought, well, my parents started about,
08:14 you know, the prayer, they prayed for me
08:16 and also there's another tip
08:17 I guess the concept the prayer you have to be in,
08:19 you know, you have to create the habit of praying
08:21 and a habit of, you know, even looking at others
08:24 you know are doing what you want to do, you know,
08:27 and to be intentional about this thing
08:29 because it's not going to come easy,
08:30 no, it's tough, it's tough.
08:32 One thing that I'm learning right now
08:34 in my journey with Christ and especially pastoring is,
08:37 you know, I don't think,
08:39 you know, I don't know how to say this,
08:40 don't really take everything so seriously.
08:45 You know, I think part of why we mess up
08:48 is that we give a lot of attention to our faults.
08:51 We give a lot of attention to where we mess up.
08:53 You know, for me,
08:54 I'm the kind of person that says
08:56 if I know I have a problem now,
08:57 I pray about and give it to God.
08:58 I don't want to get up every morning
09:00 and think about that problem.
09:01 You know what I'm saying?
09:02 Matter of fact, the more I think about it,
09:04 the more I may be inclined
09:05 to be given over to and so, yes,
09:06 as I do get up and pray that pray to God,
09:09 "Today I'm praying, you know, let you crucify my flesh
09:12 and help me to make these decisions."
09:14 I also go to the living victoriously
09:17 if you will
09:18 as if God has already given me the victory over that thing.
09:21 Because He really...
09:22 And if I fall like you said, I know that I have an advocate.
09:25 You know, I think, sometimes even in living a life of purity
09:28 we forget, you know, that all we have is an advocate.
09:31 We no longer have somebody
09:33 that's pointing our flaws to God.
09:34 Yeah. You know, God knows our flaws.
09:36 He wants to acknowledge them, but you know, Paul says,
09:39 "Now you walk in newness of life.
09:41 Don't just talk about your death and burial
09:44 and focus on resurrection and a new life."
09:47 You know, sometimes we focus on the sins more
09:48 than we do the victory over them.
09:50 And more often the ones that accuse ourselves,
09:52 put ourselves down,
09:54 and measure all the things we did wrong.
09:55 Xavier, go ahead.
09:57 I think one of the things that I had to accept was pain.
10:00 You know, brokenness equals pain, you know.
10:02 It's like if you've ever been in an accident,
10:05 if anybody's ever been in a car accident situation
10:07 where there is glass inside of you
10:08 or something that they got to pull it out, it's painful.
10:11 You know, sometimes we paint the walk
10:13 to be so fluffy, hazy should I say
10:16 No, you know brokenness equals pain
10:18 and this is one thing I had to accept.
10:20 But what brought me joy was because I grew up in the church
10:25 and leaving and then coming back,
10:27 I've always been presented to God that is,
10:29 you know, fluffy, you know,
10:31 and when I reread the Bible for myself,
10:33 I saw there's God of, you know, justice, of war, of,
10:38 you know, saying the war's already won.
10:40 And I was excited because, you know,
10:42 it's a battle for the flesh, it's a battle for the mind so,
10:45 you know, for me it was just a matter of my brokenness.
10:48 You know, I'm tired of it.
10:50 I'm going to strive every day just to wage war,
10:53 you know, against my own flesh.
10:56 It's a tricky thing and it's painful at times
10:59 but just accepting the fact
11:01 that pain comes with the territory
11:03 because of sin, but it's joy,
11:05 you know, happiness happens, joy sticks.
11:08 Yes. Amen.
11:09 I like that, you know,
11:10 and I know for me in kind of transitioning
11:12 also what you all are saying,
11:14 you know, I don't really have a motivation
11:16 to live a pure life, you know.
11:18 I didn't really want to.
11:19 I kind of was afraid of how it would look.
11:21 I was afraid to let go of the pain I was holding on to
11:24 because it was kind of a safety net for me.
11:26 And so what do you just say to someone,
11:28 you know, what is the value of living a pure life?
11:32 What can you expect
11:34 and what joy can you receive truly
11:37 from actually exercising these principles
11:39 and these practices that we've been talking about?
11:43 I was going to say, from a teacher's perspective,
11:49 you know, having high school boys,
11:52 it's not always what you say, high school girls too.
11:56 It's not what you say.
11:58 They're going to watch
11:59 what you do and how you think about,
12:02 you know, the life you live
12:04 more than they're going to listen to what you say.
12:07 And so, you know, when I think about
12:09 getting through to friends or other people,
12:13 I'm very intentional about the words I say
12:17 and I make sure that I nurture certain relationships
12:22 because I know that those individuals
12:24 might be struggling with certain things
12:26 and so I try not to
12:28 because sometimes it comes across your lecturing
12:29 and that you know more than they do
12:32 and then that's definitely not my intention,
12:34 I don't want to come across as some,
12:36 you know, expert or anything
12:37 so I just try to live that life and show them
12:40 and be honest about, you know, the stuff I struggle with too.
12:44 Yeah.
12:45 So really it gives you motivation
12:47 to want to be an example for someone else
12:51 so you live your peer life
12:52 to be an example for someone else.
12:54 Okay, I like that. And, Pastor, go ahead.
12:56 I think one of the biggest benefits for me
13:00 is no more guilt.
13:03 At least the guilt, you know, dissipating.
13:04 I mean, you're always going to feel guilty in some regards
13:08 but the guilt is so much less.
13:09 Freedom. It's so much less, man.
13:11 And that's one of my biggest things
13:13 I'm learning in my walk with Christ
13:14 is if I have to always look over my shoulder
13:17 and, you know, thinking if, you know,
13:18 "What's God thinking?"
13:20 That to me, like you said is not freedom,
13:22 that's slavery, man.
13:23 I praise God that when you're living right,
13:26 you don't have to deal with guilt.
13:27 Yeah.
13:28 "If the Son sets you free, you're free indeed."
13:30 Free indeed. Yeah.
13:31 I would also add that you also feel more at peace
13:35 because when you know you're doing things right,
13:38 you're not scared of repercussions
13:40 or is this going to happen to me now
13:42 because I did this
13:43 or what if the church member finds that
13:46 what's going to happen, you feel more at peace
13:48 because you're really not doing anything crazy
13:50 for anything out of order to happen,
13:53 so you feel more relaxed.
13:55 You can be like okay. That's just my life.
13:59 I know it's good right now,
14:00 I don't have to stress about other things.
14:03 Okay.
14:04 The other thing is like
14:06 sometimes we blame the devil a lot.
14:07 And I think that the biggest enemy
14:09 is actually yourself.
14:11 You know, when you give 'cause there's the time
14:13 where you're doing so much recklessness
14:15 that the devil will not want to deal with you.
14:17 They don't have to deal with you no more.
14:19 And I think that come to a point
14:21 where, you know, you get released
14:23 from that impure life,
14:25 not into perfection but into salvation,
14:28 you know, into living better.
14:30 And I guess Pastor K. Douglas said,
14:32 you know, not looking over your shoulder,
14:33 you know, having peace like you're,
14:35 you know, I know where my head lies
14:37 and I can go to bed resting peacefully...
14:41 Let me say that correctly resting peacefully
14:45 because I know that even though, you know,
14:48 we're going to not always getting right
14:49 but because I'm striving to do what the Bible says,
14:52 you know, go from glory to glory,
14:54 I'm struggling to do the best
14:55 that I can each day, I don't have to...
14:57 no longer do I have to worry, I'm free,
15:00 It's a freedom that I can't even describe.
15:03 Amen. Yeah. That's awesome.
15:05 So, you know, this impurity
15:08 if you choose to live an impure life,
15:10 it has a lot of effects on your relationship with God.
15:13 You know, when you are just saying,
15:15 "Well I'm going to
15:17 just do a little bit of sex today.
15:18 I'm going to be you know, engaged in going to this club
15:21 and doing this with this person and this person here,
15:23 I'm going to have these casual dates."
15:25 And all of the things that,
15:26 you know, we engage in that we think may be harmless,
15:30 but how do these type of things really take us away from God
15:34 and really affect our relationship with God?
15:37 Because a lot of people will say,
15:38 you know, "I can do that and I can go to church,
15:40 you know, I can do this stuff I want to do
15:41 but I can do the church thing as well."
15:43 It's kind of like Adam and Eve.
15:46 You know, when they sinned,
15:49 you know, their first thing was to hide.
15:52 And I think
15:54 when you're living outside of God's will,
15:59 there is that inclination to hide,
16:04 you know, so you run from church
16:07 or you don't really want to have
16:10 to listen to those friends
16:11 who will point out your nonsense.
16:14 They're being honest, they're being truthful,
16:17 but yet, you're defensive because you know they're right,
16:22 you know what you should be doing,
16:23 so there is that tendency to run and to hide.
16:27 I think living those two lives is...
16:29 I got to commend those people who live those two lives
16:31 because that take a lot of work, I'm sorry,
16:34 takes a lot of work to you know,
16:35 be praising, you're like...
16:37 like the Bible says, you know,
16:38 "They honor me with the lips
16:40 but their hearts are far away from me."
16:41 How does that work?
16:42 How can you, you know, no one can serve two masters,
16:44 I mean, it's all over the Bible.
16:46 It takes a lot of effort to be in the church
16:48 and be doing things
16:50 and I hate to even say
16:51 the terminology being at church.
16:53 Being and, you know,
16:55 trying to walk with Christ and living a double life,
16:57 you know, it takes a lot of effort
16:58 and either one way or the other,
17:01 you're gonna choose a path.
17:04 And most of the time, unfortunately,
17:06 you know, as they say,
17:07 the default setting is not Christ.
17:09 And so that said,
17:10 because you really put an effort
17:13 into being a Christian in vain all this time.
17:17 So it may not be as glamorous to be a Christian
17:23 but I think, you know,
17:24 one of the things that hinders you
17:25 is actually you know,
17:27 living to the stigma or whatever society says so.
17:30 Yeah, I mean, I'll just be honest in all
17:32 'cause you all as well that,
17:35 it just tears your relationship with God.
17:37 I mean, you know,
17:38 when you're trying to be on the fence,
17:40 you're trying to do both,
17:42 I mean, it is just so tough to keep it together,
17:43 it's like kind of keep that lie together.
17:45 It is just hard to really be the Christian
17:50 that you want to be, you know, it's like Paul says, Paul says,
17:52 you know, I'd strive to do, it's just a struggle,
17:55 it's a war inside of me, you know.
17:57 And that war if you're not actually fighting the war,
17:59 if you're just saying, "I'll just do whatever,"
18:01 you know, it is hard
18:03 when you don't give your life over to Jesus.
18:04 It makes things so much tougher
18:06 and you get to a place in your life
18:07 where it'll be like,
18:09 "Man, where is God, you know, what happened?
18:11 Where did I leave him at?"
18:12 You know, and that's a scary place to be.
18:15 Honestly living a double life
18:17 makes you have a very stagnant relationship with God.
18:21 You don't grow any closer, any deeper
18:24 because you're doing that double life
18:26 and I've noticed even with some of my friends
18:29 living the double life
18:30 drew them further and further away
18:32 where this Jesus
18:34 who they love so much, is just God
18:36 and this God who is their Father
18:39 is now just this divine being
18:41 and it goes from divine being to,
18:43 "Oh, maybe he exists.
18:44 I'm agnostic. Well, you know what?
18:47 He doesn't really exist
18:49 because of XY and Z phenomena ages like,
18:50 I've seen this just keeping on decreasing and decreasing
18:55 and if we spoke to them maybe five years ago,
18:58 they would have told you that would never happen.
19:00 They were hardcore, dedicated with God
19:04 and now it's just what happened and that's usually how it goes.
19:09 Wow.
19:10 I think that's because even the question
19:12 we're asking is kind of a misnomer,
19:14 I'm not sure if I'm using it right
19:16 or paradox really.
19:17 We're asking does impurity affect your relation with God
19:22 when the cult of purity is also the cult of relationship.
19:25 You know when God says to Abraham,
19:27 you know, "I want you to be perfect,"
19:29 He really says,
19:30 "I want you to be correct in relationship to me,
19:33 you know, not I want you to go about doing things,"
19:36 But He is saying, "I want you to be in Me."
19:39 Just as Jesus described it,
19:40 you know, "I am in you and you're in Me.
19:42 I want them also to be the same."
19:44 And so that cult of purity is a cult of relationship.
19:48 So, does impurity affect your relationship?
19:50 Of course, it does
19:51 because impurity is a lack of relationship.
19:54 You know, what I'm saying?
19:55 And so you know, what God is saying is,
19:57 "Listen..."
19:58 And the thing about relationship is
19:59 if I could too
20:01 and this is maybe where people get caught wrong.
20:02 In my relationship with my wife,
20:03 we arguing we still in a relationship,
20:06 we agree, we're in a relationship,
20:07 we fight in a relationship.
20:09 And God is saying,
20:10 "Listen, you don't always have to understand,
20:11 you don't have always to agree,
20:13 you know, you don't always have to get it right,
20:15 you just have to stay in relationship."
20:16 Yeah. Yeah.
20:17 You know what I'm saying. That's good.
20:19 And if you stay in relationship,
20:20 I am so gracious, I will count that as purity.
20:22 Mercy.
20:23 And that's so beautiful because that's what God wants.
20:27 I mean, He knows at the end of the day,
20:29 you know, He is just trying to get us to heaven, right?
20:31 He knows that we're starting to make mistakes,
20:33 but He loves us so much,
20:34 you know, "Just stay by me, just stay with me."
20:36 You know, and I think that nowadays
20:38 because of the mentality of today,
20:41 especially the young people of, "I'm just going to do me."
20:43 You know, "I'm gonna do what I want to do,
20:45 you know, I don't want to worry about living a pure life
20:48 or what God wants me to do, I have my own agenda."
20:51 You know, that's not the relationship
20:52 that you have with your friends or with your spouse,
20:55 you know, the relationship with God is,
20:57 "God, I need to know, I want to seek after your face.
20:59 I want to seek after what is it you want me to do
21:02 and how I can really do the thing?"
21:04 God will do that for us
21:06 if we're open to letting Him do it.
21:08 I think also you mentioned,
21:10 you know, the young people and society
21:12 as a whole one of the things that hinders us too
21:15 is these cliche sayings,
21:17 you know, "Only God can judge me."
21:20 We've been to bathroom yesterday.
21:21 Yes.
21:23 Or "God loves me the way I am."
21:24 And I think people often forget that.
21:27 Yes, He loves you for who you are
21:29 but He doesn't leave you where you're at, you know.
21:32 And "Only God can judge me."
21:33 I'm excited but that scares the mess out of me.
21:35 Only God can...
21:37 I'd rather judge jury judge me.
21:40 Only God can judge me that means
21:42 I ultimately gotta go before the perfect maker
21:46 who made me and tell Him
21:48 how reckless I've been with my body,
21:50 with my decisions,
21:51 all because I want to live for me.
21:53 I want to do me and that's a scary place to be,
21:56 you know, so I think that's also,
21:58 you know, an aspect of,
22:00 you know, living an impure life
22:02 hinders your cognitive ability for commonsense.
22:06 Wow.
22:07 So let's talk about that,
22:09 you know, that whatever happens to you
22:12 when you're in that rut and you just can't get out,
22:13 how does it not only affect your relationship with God,
22:15 but how does it affect your relationship with people,
22:17 your spouse, your relationships,
22:19 what does that really do in damage in those areas?
22:23 I have a friend who says the same way that you would
22:26 cultivate a friendship or a regular relationship
22:30 is the same way you would cultivate
22:32 your relationship with God.
22:34 You know, you spend time, you get to know one another
22:37 but some reason, for some reason
22:40 when it comes to God we just freeze
22:42 and we think it's some totally different,
22:44 you know, approach
22:46 and so the principles that work over here,
22:47 we assume they don't work here when, you know, that's not so.
22:53 When we're off in our relationship with God,
22:56 chances are you're going to be off
22:58 with other people and yourself also
23:02 because it's the same principles.
23:04 All right. Amen. Like, that? I definitely agree.
23:07 As you're saying it's off that even when you have friends
23:11 who are trying to tell you to do something that is right
23:14 you feel like they're against you.
23:16 You don't want to talk to them anymore.
23:18 "No, don't tell me this."
23:20 As you said, "I'm going to do me."
23:21 So you end up breaking off all of the quality relations
23:24 that you have with people who would be,
23:28 you know, I would say probably ride or die
23:29 who would do anything for you to connect with people
23:32 who may have the same philosophy as you
23:35 but they are not going to do everything in their powers
23:38 to be quality friends and you go down a path of,
23:43 "I'm going to do this because it makes me feel good."
23:46 And no matter how much
23:47 these good people are trying to help you, you just...
23:51 Yeah.
23:53 I know individuals, you know
23:54 who would just alienate their family, their friends,
23:57 all the people that truly love them,
23:59 just because they want to be with an individual,
24:01 they want to do what they want to do,
24:03 you know, even though
24:04 everybody is telling them the contrary,
24:06 "This is what you should or should not do."
24:08 They're just so anti to what people tell them to do
24:10 and they're going to mess their life up
24:11 and just do what they want to do,
24:13 you know, and it messes up the relationship with those
24:15 who really love them and trying to have
24:17 their best interest in mind and at the end of the day,
24:19 they look back and there's nobody there.
24:25 I've seen that with friends and family of mine that,
24:26 you know, it's not that you kick them to the curb
24:29 or anything like that or ride them off,
24:30 you know, you try to be there
24:32 but, you know, you try to be as Christ-like
24:35 and loving as possible you know to them
24:37 but it's like, you know, you can't force yourself,
24:41 you know, you can't force yourself on them,
24:42 you can't force them to follow whatever you follow.
24:45 You can only love them and sometimes
24:47 that cause you to love them from afar.
24:49 So a lot of times, you know,
24:50 this causes isolation
24:52 and not because they're not choosing to follow God
24:54 but because not following God
24:57 starts causing erratic behavior
24:59 that are detrimental to those relationships.
25:03 I think one of the things if I could that we forget
25:06 is that all relationships begin with God.
25:09 Not just that God gives us relationship,
25:11 we only talk about marriage
25:12 but that relationship existed in God
25:15 before man existed,
25:16 you know, He said, let us make man
25:19 and so there really is, as far as I'm concerned,
25:21 can be no successful relationship to avoid God
25:24 and even the ones that appear to be successful to avoid God
25:27 are only successful by His grace,
25:29 and so how will it affect your relationship,
25:32 without God, there is no relationship.
25:34 Okay. That's deep.
25:36 There was something that Xavier said
25:37 before that made me think
25:39 of the parable of the ten virgins.
25:41 At one point, five had to say,
25:43 "No, we can't give you any oil."
25:46 You know, and that might seem
25:49 unchristian-like or unchrist-like
25:52 but there will come a time where you're gonna have to,
25:54 like you said, guard your avenues
25:57 because of what might be erratic behavior.
26:01 And I think there's something he said before that about
26:07 it messing with your commonsense.
26:10 You know, and that's major
26:11 because that grows
26:13 to the breaking off of friendships,
26:15 isolating yourself, leaving family.
26:18 "Pure choices, why would I want to make any,
26:20 you know, pure choice?
26:22 How is that going to help me now?
26:23 It looks more fun to do X, Y, or Z."
26:25 Sure. Yeah. That's good.
26:27 Your comment reasoning is just totally
26:29 it's plain game if you think about it.
26:31 So let's real quick, somebody give, you know,
26:32 maybe a few seconds of motivation to someone
26:35 who is on the ledge, they're just not sure
26:38 if they want to really live that life,
26:40 what can we say to motivate them,
26:41 a heartfelt motivation to get them on the right track.
26:45 Brittany, want to try to motivate somebody?
26:49 Okay.
26:50 I would say that
26:53 it may seem like it's going to be fun
26:56 and it may seem like
26:57 it's going to be a great experience
26:59 but honestly, it's not.
27:01 A few years from now,
27:03 you're going to look back and wish
27:04 that you did differently.
27:05 And why have that heartache
27:07 when you can just make the right choice now?
27:10 Amen.
27:11 That's what I would really say like just don't do it
27:13 because there is so much heartache
27:14 and it's so much effort to try to recover.
27:17 I've spoken to so many other females
27:19 who are trying to recover from their past mistakes
27:21 and it takes not a day or two,
27:23 it takes years to recover, so just don't do it.
27:26 Amen.
27:28 All right, somebody else, real quick?
27:29 Well I would just say, Man, don't give up.
27:31 You know, the song we always sing,
27:33 Don't Give Up on God, He Won't Give Up on You.
27:34 Yeah. But just don't give up.
27:36 There's always hope
27:37 and everything we see on the show is not to,
27:39 you know, make you feel bad
27:40 or to make you feel like you're far
27:42 but just to let you know that there is hope.
27:44 You know, if God can do it for me,
27:45 if He can do it for Kim,
27:47 if He can do it for anybody on this panel,
27:48 He can definitely do it for you.
27:50 Praise God. And He is so powerful.
27:52 You know, He has done it for me,
27:54 He has done it for many of us on here and He is not done yet.
27:57 He is still working on me.
27:58 Please, know that He is still working on me.
28:00 He is still allowing me to live a pure life
28:04 because I choose every day
28:07 to make my choice Jesus, to make my choice Him,
28:10 and because of that He is honoring that
28:13 and cleaning me up.
28:14 I'm so thankful for that.
28:16 It's a powerful and beautiful and wonderful place to be.
28:19 I just want to leave that to you guys.
28:20 Motivation, like my Pastor Douglas says,
28:23 don't stop, keep pressing forward,
28:24 keep trying and know that you can make Pure Choices.
28:28 God bless you.


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Revised 2018-01-18