Wonderful. See everyone.
We're very thankful to be here. And I'm very thankful for this
opportunity to present a portion of God's word.
And I very much appreciate the invitation of the congregation
at Norman to be part of this great event.
I love teaching about the family and I enjoy very much having the
privilege of watching families through the decades to be
successful in the Lord. And it's an amazing, an amazing
thing to witness. When multiple generations of,
our families can be successful in their quest to serve the Lord
and their children after them, we do not save all however, and
our hearts break with those children who make decisions that
that indeed, just that break our hearts and we wonder what have
we done. What if we done, that Psalm
would turn away? From the god of the Bible, what
have we done? That Psalm would turn away from
the Lord's Church. I do know that it's up to each
one of us to decide who will, Who we will be every day and the
same truth that some choose to obey and dedicate their lives to
others. Choose to scoff.
And ignore last night, the lesson here, I saw the outline.
The lesson here was about the Lord's church when 3,000 obeyed
the gospel. On the day of Pentecost, we do
know, don't we? That that's not all who were
there. There were more than 3,000 in
attendance. Very likely far more some said
yes some said know what do we want to do in our time?
We want to influence as many as possible to say yes and we want
to influence as many as possible to stay faithful as long as they
live. It was mentioned in the
announcements that my sister just passed away.
And she died in the Lord. And so, that makes her death
because she was suffering with cancer.
A tremendous relief for our family.
And through our tears. We're so glad for her.
But that cannot be said of those who turn their back on the Lord,
that cannot be said of those who consider the the beautiful story
of the Cross and then scoff at its message.
And live in honor of Satan. And whenever individuals that we
love who have turned their back on the Lord, when they pass
away, our heart is filled with sorrow For What Might Have Been.
And I hope any time something like that happens, whether
someone dies in The Lord or not that our faith is renewed and
that we are encouraged to say, I'm going to do this.
I can do this and with God's help and the help of those that
I love, I can be successful in this life going from this life
to a home in heaven with God. Jesus said some amazing things.
in in, In. There we go, too far.
No. Okay, we'll start there, Luke
21, Jesus said Nation will rise against Nation Kingdom against
Kingdom and he was speaking to his Apostles about end time
things, there will be great, earthquakes in various places
famines pestilences. There will be fearful sights and
great signs from heaven. But before all these things
will, they will lay their hands on you and persecute, you
delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.
You will be brought before Kings and rulers for my namesake Take
but it will turn out for you as an occasion for Testimony.
Therefore settled in your heart's not to meditate
beforehand on what you will answer for.
I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your
adversaries will not be able to contradict her resist.
You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers relatives
and friends. And they will put some of you to
death, and you will be hated by all for my namesake.
But not a hair of your head shall be lost by your patience
possess your souls. So that is what we want to speak
about for just a little bit by your patience possess, your
souls and Luke 21. Jesus is speaking of end, time
specifically, he is speaking regarding the apostles in the
destruction of Jerusalem, the cord before occurred occurred
before the end of the first century.
And as we can read in this and other gospel accounts, this was
going to be a chaotic time for the apostles.
It was going to be a chaotic time for the church.
There were going to be Wars all around Earth.
Wakes famines disease. Outbreaks persecutions of
Christians, that included being put on trial for their faith,
which resulted in imprisonment and death in some instances.
Their own family members would turn against them and be active
in revealing where they were to authorities, who were searching
for Christians, that they might be put into prison tortured and
killed generally Jesus reveals, they were going to be hated and
despised for being Christians for being Followers of Christ,
then in verse 18, Jesus said not a hair of your head will be
lost. Really, he has just said you're
going to be betrayed, some of you will be put to death.
Not a hair of your head will be lost.
This is not the physical head of those.
He was addressing, this is a spiritual lesson and it was to
remind his immediate audience, the saved of the hope of Heaven.
The destruction of a Saint's body, says, McGarvey and
Pendleton, and fourfold gospel. Would work no real injury to
him. and so, those who were persecuted Jesus is saying,
There won't be any harm come to you.
Oh yeah, you may die. Some of you will but there's no
harm and then he says in verse 19, by your patience possess
your souls, obviously, God was going to bless the apostles
during this time and we know that God promised and did what
he promised to do, but the apostles had a responsibility as
well, the apostles didn't just go on to automatic pilot with
everything they did. They had things As they had to
do. Also, such as stay faithful to
God. And when they didn't, they were
corrected as in, when the Apostle Peter went astray, and
the Apostle, Paul corrected him in front of everybody, Jesus is
saying to the apostles in patience, possess your soul, and
that's a way of saying they were captains of their own faith, if
you will and that will sound familiar, who saw the slide that
was here, just a moment ago, the poem Invictus by William, Ernest
Henley has been around for a long, long time.
Perhaps, you are aware of this and have studied it in school.
I learned that the author is an individual who lived from In
18-49 to 1903. And he was born in Gloucester
England, and he was diagnosed at a very early age with tubercular
arthritis, and he went through many years of pain and
discomfort, he wrote this poem when he was in the hospital for
his disease and he had just had his left leg amputated from the
knee down. Here are his words out of the
night that covers me black as the pit from pole to pole.
I thank whatever God's may be for my unconquerable soul in the
fell, clutch of circumstance. I have not winced, nor cried
aloud under the bludgeonings of chance.
My head is bloody, but unbowed beyond this place of Wrath and
tears looms, but the horror of the shade and yet the Menace of
the year's finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters. Not how Strait the gate, how
charged with punishments. The scroll.
I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.
Now we, of course, correct. Some of the concepts in this
poem, whatever. God's may be, is not a true
statement because there is only one God, the Lord God Of Heaven
and Earth and we would also correct that the only certain
Faith after this life is the looming horror of the shade.
Because we know that the promise of the hope of Heaven awaits all
who are redeemed and Jesus himself promised in John 14,
that he was preparing A Place For Us in his father's house.
Now, Nevertheless, the concept is one of he was going to
determine the quality of his life.
That was what he was going to do.
He was going to determine the quality of his life even and
especially when life was at its worst for him.
And I believe that's a message to us that it can be up to us to
decide how we will act and react to life circumstances.
Whether life circumstances are wonderful or whether they are
the worst that we have ever seen.
What is Jesus saying? In our passage in Luke that was
addressed to the apostles about the destruction of Jerusalem.
In those things that were about to certainly happen to them.
He saying that they too could decide even with chaos.
All around them. They too could be victorious.
They could control themselves within that time.
It was within their ability. It was within their power to
have God's approval. In other words, he was saying to
them, you own this. You own this, this is on you and
that is the message that I want us to consider of some things
that we own in our time. We own our part, in our
relationships, with others. Regardless of what that
relationship might be. It is ours to own.
And so, what are we, how are we, who are we in the eyes of
others? As a child, how are we?
As a child in the eyes of our parents, we are instructed to
obey and honor, Ephesians 6:1, and to first commandment with
promise. To obey and honor.
Two simple words. Sound simple.
Really hard The Obedience part can be done because you've just
been punished. But the honor part.
That comes from the heart. So, obedience may come because
parents are big and strong. But we grow up, don't we?
Sometimes we're bigger than our parents stronger than our
parents. What are you going to do, then,
parents? The Obedience part needs to be
because the parents are someone to be followed.
Then the honor part will I'll illustrate it like this if
you're a kid and you've been told to take out the trash to
obey, is to take out the trash, to honor is to do.
So, without rolling your eyes, as you walk out the door.
A lot of us have that I roll perfected at 66, I still have it
and my mama's still knows. And so this honor thing and
Disobedience thing that we learn from the time were knee-high to
a grasshopper is what is to set the stage for who we are.
When we're not being watched It's to set the stage for who we
are as people out among others who do not have our values.
It's the set. A stage for who we will be when
we grow up and we leave father and mother.
It's to set the stage for who we will be.
When we enter into relationships, and we enter in
to friendships. So who are we as a child in the
eyes of our parents? Who are we, as a spouse in the
eyes of our spouse? There's so much with all of this
are our marriages are intended to be filled with love and
respect. And that is intended to teach
our children, who they are to be in their relationships.
Our children learn how men treat women, and how women treat Men
by what they see and observe and here every day.
And so, who are we, how are we as a spouse?
How are we, as a parent and the eyes of our children are we in
the Lord? That is our Command.
Not just because we're stronger, not just because we can wield a
mean switch, but because we're in the The Lord, we will have
appropriate punishments for infractions, and we will show
our children the way to Humble ourselves before God, so that
they might do the same. How are we?
As a neighbor in the eyes of our neighbors, a worker, in the eyes
of our boss. Our co-workers were to provide
things honest. And we are to work as if we were
working for God, there should never be a Christian who is
blamed by their bosses being lazy.
That's just not right. Evangelist are told do the work
of an evangelist and that's an example for the whole church.
Elders are selected because they have a pattern of work among the
congregation, that is easily recognized and easily seen.
And so it is, when we go to our jobs, wherever that may be, we
want to be an exemplary worker. Now, we may not do so well in
our job but we will work hard at it and we will give it our best
and school. Cool.
Is after that, what is it about us as a student in the eyes of
our teachers? And for those who are in school,
please know that school is your job.
That is your job. And so, do your best.
And grades are not necessarily an indication of effort for
everyone. Someone may get wonderful grades
but be a louse. As far as everybody is concerned
who's an authority figure in the school.
That's not the way we're supposed to be.
And so, we cannot always look at Grades and say, oh, they're a
wonderful person. They're a wonderful example to
everyone in the school. Not necessarily that's on us.
We own that now I'm kind of a lake college student.
And so I will say, when I started to college it 50 I was a
much more diligent student than I was when I was younger.
So, I do understand. That the difficulty of some
teachers, the difficulties of some classes, the difficulties
of some material, but we're still to do our very best.
How are we then? As a friend in the eyes of our
friends, if someone is our friend, it will be obvious.
Someone who has friends, has to be friendly.
And then how are we in our relationships with others?
As a friend must someone be a certain race, a certain size
Sighs a certain height the certain income level in their
home etcetera Etc. Before they will be fit to be
friends with with us if so we are so short-sighted.
If so we are so blinded by Prejudice that it is just very
very sad and we can be thankful that God does not do that.
Anytime someone is in any way different It's hard for them.
It's hard for them. We naturally seek people who are
at the same level as we are whatever that level, maybe,
that's how clicks are born and sometimes those clicks become
very, very wrong. Now there's nothing wrong with
having best friends in a circle of wonderful good friends.
But if that Circle cannot include everyone, then there's
something wrong with us and we need to own that.
We have to own that. And so it is those who cannot
hear We're still love to communicate those who cannot.
See, still love to know what's in front of them.
Those who cannot walk still love to take Journeys and so it is
everyone who maybe just a little bit different, is easy to shun.
And shame on us. If that's who we are, because
being a friend. It's what God does when he
doesn't look on outward. Appearances.
But when he looks at harks as much as possible, we are to live
peaceably with all mankind and any verse that applies to a
Christian and relationships between Christians.
Starts at home. Now, there are a lot of specific
verses about the home, but there are also a tremendous amount of
verses about Christians behaving themselves in various
relationships and how we are to conduct ourselves that has to
start at home. We don't get a pass at home on
who wears to be as Christians that needs to be where we
practice these things and perfect these things.
So we can endure whatever may come at us from the world.
And so we have Some very hard sayings.
One translation says it's God's chosen people.
Holy and dearly loved clothe yourselves with compassion
kindness humility. Gentleness and patience, was
that the scene as everybody got ready to come here tonight.
Patience, gentleness, compassion.
Kindness, humility bear with one another and forgive one.
Another if any of you has a grievance against someone that
ever happened in a family that someone has a grievance against
someone, Of course, it does how are we to conduct ourselves?
Forgive as the Lord forgave you and over all these virtues put
on love, which binds them all together in perfect Unity, it's
the bond of perfection. And so we need to bear with one
another and it's kind of like when you live with somebody in a
family you get to know them warts and all and so it is we
get to know each other very very well and we know all the buttons
to push So that we can upset this one upset that one etcetera
and we need to have our very best foot forward.
Once we have an awareness that life exists Beyond ourselves.
And so it is whenever we consider those who we will be
friends with there is a saying that was first recorded in
English translated from the German in, 1573 he that goeth to
bed with dogs a riseth with fleas.
So this is a caution about Our friendships are friendships that
we have even in the church need to be with caution.
Not everyone. Who is part of the Lord's
church? Is a good person.
Sorry. Not everyone who's outside, the
Lord's church, is a bad person. But if we start spending our
time and adapting the values of those who have nothing to do
with the Lord, then that's going to tempt us greatly and we'll
end up with fleas. Fleas like worldliness.
Fleas like wondering about the doctrine of the Lord's Church.
The New Testament puts it this way.
Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good
habits. Haven't we seen that?
Where someone gets in with a circle of individuals and get
under their influence and rather being an influence to them?
They are influenced by them. And before we even before, we
know it, they're not who they need to be and we can see them
slipping slipping slipping away. And sometimes we have to say I
am not strong enough. Have this friendship.
I'm not strong enough to be part of this association with this
crowd. I'm just not ready for that.
And sometimes we have to have the strength to turn away.
We own, who we are. We own our relationships.
We can have the strength to walk away and regarding friendships.
Friendships come and go. Friendships ebb and flow, and
sometimes we have to ask ourselves if this person were
not my friend, how would they be treating me?
And if the answer is, well, they'd be treated me, just like,
they are, then they're not your friend.
And if you've ever experienced that, you know, exactly what I'm
talking about, when somebody starts treating, you ugly, when
they won't spend time with you for no apparent.
Good reason when they don't return your text for no
apparent. Good reason when they have no
interest in what interests you and they just seem to be too
busy to be bothered by you. They're not your friend.
Now, we intend to be in heaven with every faithful child of
God, but that doesn't mean that we're going to hug every day
with everybody. That's in the Lord's Church.
Didn't Paul and Barnabas kind of proved that.
And so if someone is a great friend, wonderful, spend time,
enjoy that if they're not don't waste your time.
Please turn to someone who loves having friends like you.
Don't waste your time with people that push you out of a
group. In the Lord's Church, please it
can cause a it can cause Decades of Heartache.
Okay. We can own our own faith.
In second, Timothy 1, verse 5, when I call to remembrance the
genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your
grandmother, Lois and your mother Eunice and I am persuaded
is in you also, there are three individuals named in this verse
Timothy's grandmother. His mother and himself a notice
if you will that each of them possessed their own faith.
No one can possess our faith for us.
We have to possess our own relationship with God.
It has to be according to his word.
It has to be according to our assign roles First Corinthians
11, And we have to make sure that we're in accordance with
God's rules for our role, for who we are, but no one can
possess our faith. It is to be our own years ago,
knocking doors. I asked a fellow a question.
Like, do you have a religion and he answered me, you know, I'll
have to ask my mother. What we are and he meant that
sincerely. He didn't know, but he knew that
she knew now. What was he?
He was nothing, he was absolutely nothing and isn't
that sad? And so this faith that was in
them was in each of them. And they were a great example,
for one another, but they had their own faith, other
Christians May encourage us, and hopefully they do.
However, Ever. They cannot and must not be the
source of our faith. Our faith has to come from where
God says it comes from by hearing and hearing by the word
of God, our faith must come from the word of God.
Now, together with many other young people, it's a wonderful
occasion. Some of you will go back to home
congregations where you're the only one of your age.
You're not the first to have that experience.
Many have through the decades, you still can be faithful in the
Lord's church. If you're the only one there of
your age group, why? Because our faith must come from
the word of God. And the things that are written
in the gospels are written that we might believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you might have
life through his name. And so, these things are for us
in the word of God, which means we need to be actively pursuing
the word of God. If our faith waivers, we need to
go back to the book. We need to go back to Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, we need to read again.
And again, and again, the story of Jesus Christ, we need to
learn who he was walk with him as he performed his miracles.
Listen to the struggles that he had the Temptation that he had
going to the Cross. Be thankful for the death that
he died for us and we can renew our faith every day by looking
in the word of God and we have no excuse for not having a
Bible. What?
Many people around the world still do not have a Bible in the
language they speak. We on the other hand, have so
many bibles and now we can have them on our phones.
On our tablets, we can have many versions of the word of God at
our fingertips very, very easily.
But we can't absorb the word of God just because it exists in a
nap. Just because it exists in a
book. We can't absorb the word of God,
unless we actually concentrate on it.
One side, I recommend for study is study light dot-org.
It's a free site with extensive reference materials, including
many Church of Christ references.
Many word study references. It's an amazing sight.
But like everything that is not the Bible, be careful because
anyone who's written about the Bible is not inspired and so you
have to be careful. Look to see who wrote it and
then and only, then be careful. Don't don't ignore what, you
know, thinking you found something new.
Take what you know with you as you're studying now.
Our faith. We encourage each other and
we're supposed to do that. Where do we put those?
Who we and, We Rejoice with those who rejoice.
We're to love each other enough to correct each other.
When we're wrong relation, six. We're to be really close as the
family of God. We're to love the Brotherhood.
With that said, don't look to the side.
Look, only in front of you. What if that person tomorrow?
Is no longer faithful in the Lord's Church.
What if that person in front of you is no longer faithful in the
Lord's church, will you still be faithful?
now, for some of you, the person in front of you is me and I
acknowledge that But let's think about it.
I already mentioned an apostle who went astray.
Who corrected him? Another Apostle dressed him down
in public in front of everybody. That was the Apostle.
Peter. Did he straighten up?
Yeah, he did. He repented of that wrong.
And we know that because when he was an ordained, an elder, as
you might say, there were no outstanding warrants against
him. And so, we know we can make
mistakes from which we can recover.
We also know that people who are wonderful in the church one.
Day are gone the next Demas hath, forsaken, me.
Paul said having loved this present world, and we never see
Dimas again in the scriptures, through my decades.
In the Lord's Church, there have been members, young and old
walked away from the Lord's Church fathers who walked away
from their families, mothers who walked away from their families
and the church. There have been Elders who
walked away from the church. There have been gospel,
preachers faithful one day and gone.
The next It does and it will happen.
Which is why. If our faith is based on any one
individual, we have it in the wrong place.
Our faith must be firmly based on the word of God and we must
incur be encouraged by those who stay faithful.
Even if we look around and no one else is Can that happen?
Yes, it can, it can happen in communities.
It can happen in congregations and it happened to Jesus
everyone. Forsook him and fled in the
garden. And yet he still went to the
cross. And so are we willing to go the
way of the Cross by ourselves? When others that we love turn
their back on the Lord? And so it is we An look,
sometimes to multiple generations of our families who
have been faithful and we can be so thankful and we can be so
encouraged by that. But some of us were raised by
wolves and they were not faithful.
Now, you notice I started out with some verses about Timothy,
his mother, his grandmother. Did you notice that no men were
mentioned Not a man was mentioned in that at all, not a
father, not a grandfather. Nobody weather where the 10th
Generation of our family, that's faithful in the Lord's church or
the first, we still just must be faithful.
Some here have probably known the heartache of a parent who
leaves the Lord's church. What do we say about that?
We say, we love them, we cannot go where they go.
Some of us have suffered the heartache of Children, who have
forsaken, the Lord church and grandchildren.
Who forsaken the Lord's Church? What can we say to them?
We love them with all of our hearts, but we cannot, and we
will not go where they have gone.
We own our faith. We also own our own Talent.
The parable of the talents is that those talents were given to
each. According to his own ability,
there were different numbers of talents.
And so, the individuals were given these talents and the good
Master went away, and the individuals were left to use
those talents. In this assembly, there will be
individuals who've yet to serve the Lord in any capacity, who
will be better than most who do. Do if you can carry a tune
gentleman and you're a member of the Lord's church and you won't
lead us all and you won't help in any way in the assembly.
I do know and have been places where the leaders of the songs
couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.
But yet, they would announce a song that's appropriate for the
worship service, they would do their best to get it started.
And the rest of us would sing along while individuals, very
capable of singing far, far better set there and say, no,
not me, not me. And so it is how are we going to
use the talents that God has given us?
This to starts at home? This starts at home.
What talents do we have at home? My mother growing up.
Thought I had the talent of washing dishes.
She was raw my sister and I had that chore.
I know, I'm old, we were raised for a good number of years
without indoor plumbing. Some of you don't have a clue,
what that means others of you do, but that means a dishwashing
was done in a sink, and it was a sudden, Affair and my sister and
I never emerged from that experience ever dry.
Never, we always had some reason to, you know, to Splash a little
water on each other. What talents do we have,
whatever those talents are are to be used at home, starting at
a very, very young age, and then those talents are to be
transferred into our lives and into the The Lord's Church.
What we do with our talents in the Lord's church is not about
all about public participation. Now, young men when you
participate in leading any part of the worship, please know it
is an honor, it is a privilege and it requires maturity to not
detract from worship, and the manner in which it is done.
Ideally, no one remembers who led a song.
Ideally we remember the worshipful words and the
pleasantness of raising our voices in song, ideally, no one
remembers who led the prayers just that that prayer was spoken
to God. So sincere, and in the name of
Jesus so that we too could make it our prayer and whoever
teaches a lesson long after we forgotten who did.
So may we remember the principles of God's word that
Were presented lovingly to God's people.
Using our talents in the Lord's Church goes, Way Beyond what we
do in public. I held a meeting some years ago
at a place and a brother had just moved to another
congregation. And we got there on, it was a
Wednesday through Sunday meeting, we got there on a
Thursday and the Brethren said Greg, it's hot in here, but we
don't know how to we don't know how to set the thermostat.
The brother. Who did that just moved?
And then a night or two goes by and they said great.
We don't know how much to pay the preacher for a meeting
because the brother who did that that same brother just moved.
I said, well let I'm sure we can figure that one out.
You know, the thermostats were going on set, you know, I didn't
I didn't They missed that brother.
And they didn't even know. All that he did they didn't know
half of what he did. And so what can we do?
Ladies young ladies, especially at what point do you own helping
in any part? Of the church.
If your church is going to, if your congregation is going to
have a meal together must that always be moms task at what
point does a young lady say let me do something.
Let me cook something at what point do younger people in a
congregation say I'll always clean up at what point does
someone say how can I serve at what point does someone young
man or young woman? Say let me Take my turn doing
things. Whether it's making the loft.
Cleaning the toilets, mowing the lawn.
Somebody does all those things. At some point, we have to grow
up and look Beyond ourselves and say how can how can I help?
How can I help now? There's a concept here.
That says. When we do our charitable Deeds,
were not to sound a trumpet as the Hypocrites do.
Can we do a good deed? For someone.
Without posting it online. I hope we can and we visit the
lonely. And we say hi to someone who
people rarely speak to how. Can we serve at any age?
It is an honor and a privilege to serve the Lord.
The Christian is not forbidden to practice righteousness before
men, what is forbidden is to make it his, or her object to be
seen. What is our motivation for
helping others? Hopefully it's because we love
the Lord and we love God's people.
And therefore we want to see how can we help?
Well, I think I need to stop here at this one.
I'm sorry, young ladies I did say something about mirror time
and I know I'm playing with fire.
I know Maritime is very, very important.
But when you look beyond the mirror, when you look yourself
in the eye who are you and when you turn away from that mirror,
is your world larger. Is it larger than yourself?
You know, we start out very very selfish, very selfish.
There's no one more selfish than a tiny baby.
We circled back around to that when we get really old and when
you're when you're just an infant, people think that
selfishness is really cute. When you're really old not so
cute anymore, get me water. Where's my coffee?
Not so cute anymore but when you interpret a cry as all the baby
needs to be changed. That's somehow cute.
I'm told now We can own how we help and who we are.
Okay, we're going to plunge into an area that is very difficult.
But we're going to talk about it.
When I work with people before they're married.
I tell them, we can, we're going to talk about everything.
We're going to talk about anything and we're going to get
through this. And so that's how this is, as
well. We need to own our standard of
morality and physical desire, is to be seen as a gift from God,
the Apostle Paul addresses that in First Corinthians chapter 7.
When he says, each one has his own gift from God and this
manner, and another after that, the word gift of that is in
First Corinthians 7. Verse 7 is normally associated
with miraculous spiritual gifts, but that is not the case here.
This is the natural gift of God for desire of intimacy and
control of the same. And so the proper gift of God.
According to John Edwards is control, over one's bodily
appetites and passions, and it will be extremely difficult for
many individuals to have appropriate control.
Some of that can be explained by information as is give presented
here. This is men versus women at the
age 12 through 25. The desire for men starts early
Peaks earlier and the desire for women starts at about the same.
Time, but Peaks much later and to complicate that this is the
age of which people get married these days.
And in 2015, it's near its 29 years for men and 27 years for
women and it has never been higher.
And so we have individuals with desire and individuals who don't
get married for longer and longer times.
Now, what do we say and what do we see in this, this graph about
when development occurs H what it means for Christians is that
men need to learn self-control in this area at a younger age
than women. Men need to learn this lesson
first and God's solution for the gift of Desire is self-control
and marriage for those that are scripturally qualified to marry
First Corinthians 7 says, now concerning the things of which
you wrote to me, it is good for a man, not to touch a woman
nevertheless because of sexual immorality, Let each man have
his own wife and let each woman have her own husband.
So who is responsible for this self control in dating who's
responsible for this? Well, both.
But who's responsible first? Gentlemen.
That's you. That's you, you're responsible
first, why it's a principle that's found in Ephesians of
fifth chapter, where we find husband and wife compared to
Christ to the church Christ is the head of the church and was
willing to go first in all things going the way of the
cross for his bride and so it is gentleman that if we're going to
walk in the Earthly image of Christ, we need to be first in
self-control. And it's like, well, but this
desire. Yeah.
Paul said. 2 Timothy, let no one despise, your youth be an
example in Purity. That's what he's talking about.
Timothy you need to be an example in Purity.
So as we look further, there's a parallel that I hope can help
with this because individual say, well I have this desire and
it just needs to be expressed. It's like well let's look at the
days of Miracles. Miraculous gifts at Corinth.
They had all these The scarce and people thought since I have
a miraculous gift, I just have to express it.
And this particular passage that I have on the board, I believe
refers to what was going on in their worship.
Everyone men and women who had a miraculous gift were expressing
their gift in worship. You talk about a chaotic mess it
was and Paul said, stop. It said, ladies you can't get to
speak at all and then he says that men one at a time.
But look at verse 32, the spirits of The prophets are
subject to the prophets. In other words, he's saying, you
don't have to use this gift, you can control when you use it.
And so anyone with the miraculous spiritual gift was
expected to behave themselves and use their gift
appropriately. And I believe the same concept
applies to the non miraculous gift of Desire.
All who have the gift of Desire are expected to behave
themselves and use their gift appropriately, and so it is
Young man. Please do not use your gift of
desire to attempt to manipulate young ladies in agreeing to
behaviors, that God, only blesses in marriage.
Man, that's on you. That's on you.
Now, you can have accountability Buddies.
And that's what I meant about the premarital studies.
When I work with a couple, I'll say how you doing.
How you doing with your commitment to purity?
How are you doing avoiding intimacy before?
You're married. Remember I said we're going to
talk about anything and everything.
And I've had couples. Look at me and say we've made
some mistakes. And then we talked about that.
And then I asked them, are you willing to make a commitment?
That we will discuss again in our time together.
To stay pure until you marry. And anyone who says no, I won't
waste my time. I've never had anybody say no,
I've had people relieved. That someone would bring up a
subject that was just eating them up with guilt.
And they needed some help with it and there was nobody that
could turn to at least they thought, of course, there were
people they could turn to but they felt all alone in that.
Young ladies. You are amazing.
God truly saved the best to last when he created Eve.
You're the crown jewel of all creation. but when you use your
desire and your beauty, And your desirability.
At the wrong time. You become just like Eve after
her fall. When she sought as a disciple of
Satan to get her husband to be just like her.
Don't use your beauty that way. Who you are and your body is a
gift from God and God's solution to the gift of Desire is
marriage, okay? That was hard.
I know we're going to move on to money.
It's simple, right? No, it's not mistakes that you
make it fun with money. At a young age will haunt you
for decades. If you're not careful, it's
possible in a few brief moments to have so much debt, your life
that you never see a way out. If you've not listened to Dave
Ramsey on his radio program or read any of his books, spend 30
minutes listening to him. Once you've done that, you'll
hear the same thing over and over.
If you listen to every day, What he says is from a Biblical
standpoint, don't make money your master.
No, man can serve God. And Mammon the Bible says
remember that. And so it is this is a chart
that talks about the net worth by age.
It starts at age. 35, why does it start at age?
35, with posit most of your ages.
You have nothing any of you go into a car dealership and buy a
new car, the second, you drive it away.
Your net worth is met you just lost a lot of money, the minute
you turn the key. It takes a long time to have
much money. So, how do we behave ourselves
with money? Well, take heed and beware of
covetousness for one's life. Does not consist in the
abundance of the things that he possesses yet.
At the same time, we have an obligation to make a living and
to provide in fact if those who are able don't, they're worse
than a an unbeliever. They're worse than an Infidel.
The Old King James says, we need to be willing and able to
provide for our families. I encourage everyone who can to
have a great education to use it well to get wonderful jobs where
you can serve God as a Christian within that job.
And that gives the church, the means to send the gospel around
the world. How do you think the gospel has
spread around the world? This is a hub of doing that.
That how has that happened? It's happened by families, who
are faithful to the Lord who have good jobs and make a good
income and they're very generous in their giving to the Lord's
church and by that means there are thousands of congregations
around the world. So I'm not saying just work at
the least paying job, you can find not at all.
I'm just saying when we when we start to make money it has to be
with a greater purpose, a greater purpose.
And that greater purpose is to serve others.
The church is to not be burdened.
When there are issues in our families families are going to
help first. And so there are many things
that we can do. If we have a good living, we
also are to own our sin Oh, this is hard.
It's so easy for me to blame somebody else for the mistakes
that I have made. If only this person, you know,
that's that's or, you know, how that goes.
And so Eve, blamed the serpent, Adam.
Blamed Eve, that woman thou gave us me.
You know that really was blaming God.
And that's what we do. When we start looking around for
somebody to blame for our mistakes.
We're blaming God, we own our mistakes.
And when we make mistakes, we need to have a humble heart,
where we are willing to say, like David of old, I have sinned
and we need to be willing to do our best to recover from that
sin. With our with the rest of our
days. And so it is our time.
Now brings us to talk a little bit more about a life of sin.
I'll tell you about a fellow. Who at your age?
Many of you. Was a Christian and then decided
that there were so many neat things out there you know the
pleasures of sin for a season. And so he enjoyed most of them
drinking drugs multiple and moral relationships.
Driving under the influence and ending up in prison for
vehicular manslaughter. And through the years, he has
struggled in and out of the Lord's Church.
And within the last few years, he has had the most Gears of
faithfulness that I have known in the last 20-plus years, that
I have known him. He talked recently.
About his dreams. He said I know the Lord has
forgiven me. Said, I know I've made so many
mistakes. And I know the Lord has forgiven
me. but he said, I am haunted In My Dreams by the mistakes, I
made when I was young, And he said, I can't stop the dreams.
But here's what he has started doing. he started saying, when
he wakes up from one of those nightmares, He prays to God with
faithfulness for having survived.
He's thankful to be alive, he's thankful to have survived.
All of those poor decisions. And he's the most active person
I have ever known and inviting people to the Lord's church and
inviting people to his home for Bible studies and talking to
people every day about the Lord's church and what can be
there for anyone. one of these days, if the Lord Wills, you
will be my age or older, And you'll get the pleasure perhaps
of looking back on your life. and when you're my age, And you
look back. What do you want to see?
Do you want to see a life lived
of service to God? Do you want to see a life filled
with mistakes? That you just never cleaned up.
What do you want to see? I hope you want to see that at a
certain point. You said I own my relationship
with God. And I'm going to do my best now.
We don't own our relationship with God in that, we demand of
God to accept us as we are. But we're responsible for who we
are before God, and in the day of judgment, when the books are
opened and the Book of Life is open, what does that mean?
It means we will be judged out of who we have been and that
means each day that we live. We're telling the Lord where we
want to go and yet the Bible says in our patience possess our
souls. That's what Jesus told his
Apostles in our patients and so it is just for today, can we win
a victory over Satan? Just for today?
Can we say no to a temptation? Just for today.
Can we do what we need to do? Help who we need to help.
Can we do our best to serve the Lord?
And so our soul is for us to win.
It's not for us to walk in those things of the world.
It is for us, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
And we can do this. We can be Victorious and
Phillips translation of Luke 21. 19 says, hold on and you will
win your souls. We don't know what's coming in
life. It may be a wild ride.
Hold on, we'll be okay. Not a hair of our head will be
harmed. That has nothing to do with the
hairs of our head. It just means no matter what
happens to us in this life will be okay if we will stay strong
in the Lord. Perhaps I'm talking tonight to
someone who's not yet turned their life over to God.
Yes, we all know. We are, which means we have the
right to decide whether or not we're going to be a Christian.
The Lord will accept all who will come to him.
And he will accept all who obey him, according to his word, in
order for us to be a Christian as was taught last night.
It is necessary in order for us to, to be forgiven of our sins
to have faith to repent of our sins to confess.
That Jesus is the son of God, and then, to be immersed in
water for the remission of our sins.
Perhaps, there's someone tonight, who's not yet?
Taken that step, you own your right to do that.
The Lord has blessed us with the freedom to make that decision.
The greatest decision we will ever make in our lives.
Perhaps there's someone here who is a Christian but you've sinned
of a public nature, isn't it? Time that you got rid of that
burden and that, you allow those who are here to pray on your
behalf that you might be restored to faithfulness.
There's one to obey the gospel to repent of wrong.
Please come forward as we stand as we see