Parent Preview: Exposed! [week.4 makin' up after messin' up]

Well the series is about to wrap up this weekend, and we have a had an amazing response from the students and parents about how helpful this series has been.  We are so thankful for what God is doing in the lives of the students as they realize their need for Him and begin to see their sexuality through His eyes.  This past week we challenged them to pursue purity at all costs, not just virginity.  We explained that God wants us to run from all sexual immorality and that you can be a virgin and not be pure and that you can be pure and not be a virgin.

Here's the notes for this coming weekend (4.20) as we finish up with the fourth week of EXPOSED! We hope that these notes help you prepare for conversations that you are having with your student(s) by giving you the content ahead of time.  

EXPOSED! [the naked truth about sex and dating]

week.4 - makin' up after messin' up

This week we will wrap up the series by really focusing on God's forgiveness and the immense power there is in His grace to remove our guilt from past sexual mistakes.  We want every student to know, whether they have sexual mistake already in their past or not, that God's forgiveness is big enough to cover all.  We want them to understand that while different sins have different physical and emotional consequences, nothing to too big for God.  Many students experience immense guilt after a bad sexual decision and often they feel like they are too far for God to reach them.  We want them to know that God is not only looking and longing for them, but is actually chasing after them to bring them back to fullness in His forgiveness.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

"Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves.  Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or who practice homosexuality, or are thieves or greedy people, or drunks, or are abusive, or cheat people - none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that.  But you were cleansed, you were made holy, you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God."

This verse sounds like bad news are first but it really is the explaining how none of us are clean and that by our own mistakes and sins we miss out on God's best for us.  But that God can cleanse us from all of our sins!  That if God can forgive our greed or pride (a form of idolatry that we are all guilty of) then he can forgive our sexual sins. because:

In God's family, there are no PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED!

In Mark 1:40-42 there is a story where Jesus heals a leper:

"A leper came to HIm, begging on his knees, 'If you want to, you can cleanse me.' Deeply moved, Jesus put out Hid hand, touched him, and said, 'I want to. Be clean.' Then and there the leprosy was gone, his skin was smooth and healthy." 

This story is so surprising because Jesus touches a man that was unclean.  He touched him when no one else would.  He did not have to touch the man to heal him.  There are plenty of occasions where Jesus heals people without touching them, but Jesus knew that this man needed more than to be healed.  He needed to be cared for, and that is what Jesus does for us as well.  

Nothing is TOO SHAMEFUL to make Jesus LOOK AWAY.

This truth is so important, because students have to know that nothing is too shameful to come to God with.  His love covers all our sins and His grace gives us second and third and one hundred and third chances when we do not deserve them. 

Romans 8:38-39:

"Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not event he worst sins listed in Scripture."

We learn that shame and guilt that come from our sinful decisions are not from God but from people.  Our sins have consequences and we must face them, but God is never going to turn  His back on us, and we can never sin so badly that God says, 'That's the last time!' He will never leave us or forget us.  God the Father turned His back on Jesus because of our sin, so that we could know Him personally, free from sin, guilt, fear or shame.

GUILT comes from people, GRACE comes from God.

We often come back to God and say, 'Sorry I messed up again! Will you forgive me again this time?' And while this may not seem like a big deal, it is a drastic theological error.  The Bible tells us that God separates us from our sins as far as East is from West and that He is powerful enough to be all-knowing, and yet chooses to forgive and forget our sins.  So we never have to say will forgive me AGAIN.  God wipes our slate clean because of Jesus and instead we can thanks Him for his continued forgiveness as we confess our sins.

Psalm 103:11-13:

"For His unfailing love towards those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the Earth.  He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him."

Because of God's love for us, He FORGIVES AND FORGETS our past mistakes.

While our sexual sins have consequences, we can always come back to God.  He is waiting for us to come to Him for forgiveness and love.  His open arms are there to wrap us up in grace and remove from us all shame and guilt.

One Last Thought:

No matter how much you've MESSED UP in the past, it is never too late to MAKE UP with God.