How to Share Your Faith Using When Someone Says 'Come Party With Us!'
"Tis the Season to Celebrate. And if you're a teen, you already know that many teens celebrate by indulging in the whole partying scene. Sometimes the invitation to a party means good, clean fun, but sometimes it's an open door to the drinking/drug/sex scene. As a Christian, how do you respond to that second kind of invitation?
Are you willing to stand on what you believe and how you think God wants you to live your life?
The Bible has plenty to say on why the party/drinking/drug/sex scene is not where you want to be. God's Word tells us that the Holy Spirit lives in us! This is so amazing, but the Bible clearly teaches that when we are believers, God sends His Holy Spirit to dwell inside us. And this means we should treat our bodies like God's dwelling place - in other words, take good care of them. The drinking/drug/sex scene just doesn't fit with that.
Here's how the Bible puts it:
Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body. (1 Cor. 6:19-20, The Message)
Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. (Ephesians 5:17-19, The Message)
God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God.(I Thes.4:3-5, The Message)
So how do you explain this to your unreached friends without sounding preachy and self-righteous, if and when the invitation to this kind of party comes? Here are some conversation ideas for you to use as springboards to discuss this issue:
- It's OK to express appreciation for the invitation to the party, as in, "Hey, thanks for thinking of me! I enjoy hanging out with you too! But honestly, I'm just not into the whole party scene. Maybe we can hang out together sometime and do ...(and suggest an alternative activity you both enjoy)."
- If your friends follow-up and ask you why you're not into the party scene, try something like, "I don't know if you know this about me or not, but I'm personally really into the whole spiritual thing. If you're interested I'd love to talk to you more about it..."
- When the conversation opportunity comes along to explain the reasons behind why you're not into the party scene, you might try something like, "I don't want my sense of security and fun to be grounded in some chemically induced sensation I might get from smoking pot or drinking, I want it to be grounded in God. So I try to keep God at the center of who I am and what I do..."
- The party scene can get teens in big trouble in terms of parental trust, the police (as in a criminal record), and pre-marital sex, STDs and pregnancy. Explaining that you have goals and dreams for what God has in store for your future, and that you don't want to risk putting those goals and dreams at risk for the brief pleasures of the party scene, may connect with your friends.
Remember, Jesus reached out in love and truth to those whose behavior was questionable. But he was also very clear about who he was and the life that God had called him to. Let him be your model.
