one28 – Biblical Womanhood

Posts tagged Biblical Womanhood

Posted
21 May 2008 @ 7pm

Tagged
Biblical Womanhood, Susan Bone

Contentment, God Deserves It!

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Susan Bone
Biblical Womanhood
2008.05.21
one28 Wednesday worship

Posted
7 May 2008 @ 7pm

Tagged
Biblical Womanhood, Rebecca Barnts

Guarding Your Heart

Rebecca Barnts
Biblical Womanhood
2008.05.07
one28 Wednesday worship

Philippians 4:8

Introduction

Our topic this evening is emotional purity and to start off I thought that I would share a little bit about why I chose this. Some of you especially those in Jr. High are probably thinking, “I don’t like boys, they’re weird. I would never like one, so why are we talking about this?” When I was in Jr. High I thought the same thing. Then when I got into high school I did start noticing them. However since I didn’t even really know what guarding your heart really meant and because I didn’t effectively fight the temptation, this became a struggle for me throughout high school. By God’s grace He has shown me how to fight that sin and so I wanted to share with you what God has taught me.

Our text this evening is Philippians 4:8.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

To dwell means to “live or stay as a permanent resident; reside. 2. to live or continue in a given condition or state: to dwell in happiness. 3. to linger over, emphasize, or ponder in thought, speech, or writing (often fol. by on or upon.” The KJV, NIV, and ESV all say “think” instead of dwell, a synonym for both those is meditate. What are you meditating on? Is it glorifying to God? According to Philippians we are to think on what is pure, lovely, excellent, worthy of praise, honorable, and true. But Satan doesn’t want us to keep our focus on God, that’s why it is a battle to keep our emotions from controlling our thought life.

1. The Fight

As women God made us emotional beings. All to often we let our emotions lead instead of having them follow. When we see a cute guy or someone that we like comes up to us to talk, where does our mind immediately go? We start the sometimes weeks long pondering that maybe he likes me, and he was telling me this by talking to me. We tend to analyze every move a guy makes because we want believe in our head that he is as madly “in love” with us are we are of him.

What does Philippians 4:8 say we are to think on? Is analyzing something that most likely means nothing, good, pure, and honorable? No, this is just the opposite. Is there anything wrong with noticing guys and feeling attraction to them? No, but what do you do with that attraction? Do you let it plant a seed in your mind, water it, and let it grow until is so big you don’t know how to get rid of it? Or do you just notice and move on with life keeping Christ as your focus? Some of you may be thinking, why does it matter? Who cares if I think about boys more than I do about God? Well, God does, whatever replaces God in our lives is an idol.

However at that time you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? (Galatians 4:8-9)

Being ruled by our emotions and looking to guys, or even our infatuation with guys, to be what we think will satisfy us is a sin. Why would we want to be enslaved to our emotions? What lasting joy is there in that? There is none, you may have a fleeting moment of happiness, but that’s about it. Where can we find lasting joy and satisfaction? Only in Christ and it is only through Him and we can have victory in the fight over our emotions.

2. Victory

All through high school in my struggle with emotional purity I was lacking the one thing that could give me victory. I was looking to my own strength to win the battle, instead of instead of relying on Christ. Much like Israel, when they didn’t do things the way God told them to or didn’t seek his wisdom failed miserably, so will we if we don’t look to Him to win the battle for us. Christ does not want to see us fail, He said He would never leave us nor forsake us. It is through giving the battle completely over to Him and meditating on Scripture that will give us victory over this battle. One of our theme verses this year is:

Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

The NIV says to guard your heart, which in my mind implies more of an urgency, because do we guard something that isn’t precious? How can we guard our hearts if we aren’t meditating on Scripture? We can’t, we can try but we will fail miserably.

Besides meditating on scripture how can you practically guard yourself? For each of you it will be different, maybe some of you need to stop seeing certain kinds of movies or looking at magazines, reading certain books, or maybe even for some of you finding other people to hang out with. The world does pull you down, even if you don’t notice it.

Back to Philippians, is what you dwell on pleasing in the sight of the Lord? Just because we don’t know what goes through your brain on a daily basis, doesn’t mean that you can get off scott free. God sees your thoughts; Psalm 139:2 says, “You know my thoughts afar off.” So ask God to reveal any sin that you may have in this area and ask Him to give you strength to fight the fight and victory in the fight.

Posted
16 April 2008 @ 7pm

Tagged
Biblical Womanhood, Sonja Sarr, stewardship