Series: Love Glue
Message: Stuck
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Reflection: Mike Speegle
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Beyond: Brandon Kharns
Live Purpose: Vanessa Rivera
Editor: Becky De Oliveira

Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.

Read: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 in the English Standard Version (ESV). Note 1–3 insights or questions.

Reflect: We started this series off by considering Paul’s definition of love and his connected teaching that we don’t really understand it, that we can’t. Yet he taught that reality doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, evolve, and grow not only in our understanding but in our expression of it.

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11, ESV)

The idea of adult-ing causes a lot of anxiety for some of us. We know we’re supposed to be grown-up, be responsible, dependable, and able to balance our expenditures at the end of the month—but it’s so hard. That’s always been true.

It’s also a key teaching of the Bible: the maturing of the followers of Jesus.

Paul offered one of those maturing statements in this week’s passage: “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful (1 Corinthians 6:12). That one statement could be the verse that changes your life.

What if you began to make decisions based on that truth? What if you could do ______, but decided it probably isn’t going to help you ______? What if you began to make decisions based on what’s the wise thing to do, not just what’s the best thing, the “right” thing, the fun thing, the thing that will be easiest, make the most money? What if a huge part of your faith journey is about not just believing that but figuring it out?

What if you approached your most important relationship(s) with this attitude: is what I’m about to say, do, even think the most helpful to this relationship?

If you can do that more regularly, more consistently, your chances of staying stuck with that person will increase dramatically.

Recalibrate: Where do I most need to consider that while I can do whatever I want (all things are lawful for me) maybe doing some of these things isn’t helpful?

Respond: Father, please give me the wisdom to ask what the wise thing to do is and the courage to do it.

Research: Here’s a place to sign-up for a five lesson course on reconnecting with your husband.

Remember: “Not everything is good for you” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Mike Speegle is the lead pastor for New Hope, an exciting, young, multi-ethnic Adventist Church in Fulton, Maryland. Mike became a follower of Jesus and an Adventist in his early 20s. Pacific Union College was the first Adventist school he ever attended; he met his wife Lorie there. Mike has pastored for 30+ years, served in the Ministerial Association of the General Conference, and has written a book, Big Questions, as well as a number of articles.

Holding your little one, watch the Bible App for Kids story called The First Sin. Love does not lie, nor trick you into doing something that will hurt you. Love does not yell at you for making a mistake. Love, like God had for Adam and Eve, finds us in our sin and takes care of us. Let love live in you. May your little one see and feel it and learn to live love too.

What can you do now that you couldn’t do a year ago? It might be playing tennis or doing a somersault. God gave us life to do good things. He has given us His Spirit to help us. If we can’t figure out if something is good for us or not, listen to the alarm bell that was in our story from yesterday and stay away from it. Just like we get better at tennis or somersaults the more we do them, the more we listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice the more we get to know His voice. His voice will always be kind and good. He will ask you to treat others just like you would treat yourself, and He will always be the best thing for you.

I hope you’ve been following along because we’ve been hitting some difficult topics this week. So for today I’m just going to give you a quick rundown. Feel free to backtrack and reread things that are extra meaningful to you:

• Put away childish thinking. You are in the process of entering adulthood. Don’t be a kid brat in an adult’s body. It’s not cute

• Stop thinking about heaven and salvation as a goal that require you to meet the minimum requirements only. Instead see it as an adventure to be made better the closer you get to Jesus.

• Follow God’s lead and leave the rest behind. God’s advice will make your life better. Counterfeit advice usually won’t

• You are more valuable than you can ever know. Your body is your only real tool. Take care of it as if your life depends on it—because it does. Take pride in it because it’s the gift God has given you. Think you aren’t much to look at? Pshhh. God thinks you are perfect. Stop with that negative nonsense

• Start thinking about how to honor God through your sexuality. That doesn’t mean shaming yourself and the gift of sex; it means honoring God and others.

You may find someone with whom you’d like to spend the rest of your life. You may get married, and some of you may even have children. You may be reading this and marriage or a romantic relationship could be the last thing you’re thinking about. That’s OK. Get to know people. Make friends. Have fun. As we end this series on love tips, I’m hoping that you come back to these passages in this series as you get older. If you have Bible, I’d encourage you to mark the texts of this series in your Bible. You can put a heart symbol, star, exclamation point—use anything to remind you of this series. If you don’t have a Bible, I’d really encourage you to get one. I’ve learned that the more I mark certain passages, the more likely I am to read them over again. There is so much goodness and wisdom in these texts and I pray that you go back to these when you’re seeking wisdom.

Zan Long is GRC director for faith development groups. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
Brandon Kharns is the family life pastor at Placerville Seventh-day Adventist church in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California near Lake Tahoe. 
Vanessa Rivera is a therapist in a community mental health center in Denver, CO, and serves as the lead elder for Live Purpose at Boulder Church.