Youth Week - July 2003
7 July, 10am: Summary of sermon by Erlo Stegen

Jer 10:23

O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Your life is not your own. If you have wood or clay that you've formed into an article, and someone comes to take it as their own, you will confront the person that it is not theirs, but your own. So too, our life belongs to God, who have created and formed us.

Fear is rife here in Africa. A rat might run on your roof, and you fear it's your neighbour that wants to kill you. From April 2002 - March 2003, 21405 people have been murdered - stabbed, shot, or killed by some other violent means. That amounts to 60/day in SA. You reap what you sow. He that kills with the sword will die by the sword. Abel's blood cried to God from the ground. How much more if blood is shed in such a quantity in SA! Sodom and Gomorrah's perverseness reached heaven and God destroyed them. So too SA's sexual immorality cries out against heaven. Sin itself cries out against heaven. Just think of the thousands that have died from AIDS already. The true statistics is much higher than commonly believed.

Billy Graham and his co-workers had the rule in their team that never will one of them be found alone with a woman in a car or going alone with a woman to places, that is not his wife. Today he and his co-workers are old, but not once were any of them accused of sexual immorality. These were men of God that lived holy lives. We have the same standard here at KwaSizabantu. There are some other churches where they do not care about this and sexual immorality is rife, but we want to uplift the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and present it spotless.

Some say that one needs to know a girl first before you get married to her. They say, "If you go to the shop to buy a bag of mealie meal, you open it first, to inspect it. So one must first sleep with a girl before you can marry her." Well, some Indians are clever. They put the best meal at the top of a bag and when you open the bag, it looks like top quality, but the rest is poor quality. If you open the bag and inspect it, someone else has done so too before you. What will the bag of meal be like after everyone had put their hands through the meal to inspect it? If you sleep with a girl that already slept with 10 others, it's as if you've slept with all 10 as well, and will get the combined diseases of all. We bury people all the time. We must send co-workers everywhere to take funerals. Fortunately we can preach the Gospel too at those funerals.

The story is told of a certain doctor who greatly desired to ascend a very high mountain, but was too inexperienced to do it alone. Eventually he found a guide that was willing to take him to the top. All the way to the top he was bound to his guide in case he slipped. Finally, after many days of stiff climbing they reached the top and the doctor planted his flag. The mountain was so high that the ice never melted at the top. On their way down the doctor requested the guide to untie him, as he thought he knew how to go about mountain climbing by that time. The guide refused and warned him that descending is even more dangerous than ascending. However, the doctor pleaded and pleaded with him, until his guide agreed and untied him. Not long after that, the doctor stepped carelessly on the ice, his foot slipped and he slid down a precipice, and died. If you want to live for God, you must ascend the mountain of the Lord. This is the most difficult mountain of all to climb, for you must walk with Him today, tomorrow and continually. You must live a holy life. You must be bound to your guide, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember Joseph who feared God and overcame the many temptations in Egypt.

If you have received Christ as your Saviour, gather together with others who are like-minded. Do not isolate yourself. The Bible says that we must not neglect the fellowship of the saints.

To illustrate God's love for his Son, rev Stegen related the well-known story of the rich man who had only one son he loved very much. His son died in war. When the rich man died, he decreed in his will that his whole estate must be auctioned, but that whoever buys the portrait of his son, which will be auctioned first, will inherit everything else. Please go here for the full story.

What does God's Son mean to you? Maybe the beautiful girls and riches of the world mean everything to you, young men, but you despise God's Son. But God has decreed that he who has the Son, receive everything - Eternal Life. Those who have the Son of God on the Judgement Day, will be heirs of God. Ask God to reveal to you this mystery of His Son, for if God has given unto us His Son, how much more will he not give us everything else! If you don't have the Son, you will lose everything, even your life, for it is not your own.