(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

In Luke chapter 15, the part I want to focus on is beginning in verse 11. The title of my sermon this morning is Stupid Things that Young People Do. Stupid things that young people do. There are some things that people, when they're young, they make a lot of the same mistakes or they have the same mentality over and over again, and I know because I've been there. I remember when I was a teenager, when I was a young person, I did some of these stupid things. We need to really listen up this morning, especially if you're a teenager or in your early 20s. Obviously, we can all learn from this at any age, but especially the young need to listen to the sermon on stupid things that young people do. Number one is that they have no regard for the future. No regard for the future. They just can't see that far off. I remember being a teenager and just not thinking anything about just beyond being a teenager, being in my 20s. I couldn't see anything past that. What young people don't realize is that they've got their whole life ahead of them, which is probably going to be 70 or 80 years long, but they don't think about that. They can only see what's right in front of them. Unfortunately, one stupid thing that young people do is not having any regard for the future. This is a perfect example of that. Look at verse 11. He said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, and he divided unto them his living. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. When he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in one. This guy's just living moment by moment, just goes out, parties, wastes his whole inheritance, and obviously, that inheritance was meant to be something to sustain him throughout his entire life. It takes money to make money, doesn't it? If you're going to be a farmer, you've got to have a piece of land. You've got to have the equipment. The idea was that if he inherited that stuff from his father, he can just roll right into a prosperous life being a farmer, being a rancher, having cattle, whatever the case may be. But instead of investing his money wisely into his future, he just squanders it and wastes it all, partying, riotous living. He blows it all. Then there's a mighty famine in the land, and he's literally starving. Why? Because he just didn't think anything about the future. Now, the Bible does say, and if you would flip over to Genesis 25, the Bible does say, you know, take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. But, you know, to apply that to the way young people think would be taking it grossly out of context. When the Bible says take no thought for the morrow, it's not saying, hey, eat, drink, party, rack up the credit cards, nuts to tomorrow, tomorrow take care of itself. That's not what the Bible means there, okay? What the Bible's actually saying there when it says take no thought for the morrow is just that we shouldn't worry, we shouldn't fret and stress out about what we're going to eat, what we're going to drink, because we need to rely on God to take care of us. And what we need to do is live in the present, worry about what we need to do today, going to work today, serving God today, obeying the Lord today, and letting the Lord care for our future outcomes and not worrying that God is not going to come through for us because He always will. That's what the Bible says when it says take no thought for the morrow. It's not saying to live your life in a way that has no regard for the future. That would be very silly indeed, wouldn't it? And all throughout the Bible, we have examples of people who did not think about the future in their youth. Look at Genesis chapter 25 verse 29, here's another perfect example with Esau. And Jacob sawed pottage and Esau came from the field and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom, which means red. And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, swear to me this day, and he sware unto him and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Here's the key phrase, thus Esau despised his birthright. Why did he despise the birthright? This is identical to Luke chapter 15. The birthright was the portion of goods that would fall to him, right, when he inherits when his father dies, what he's going to get from his parents. And here Esau despised his birthright. The word despise there means that he has no regard for it. It means nothing to him. It doesn't matter to him at all. Why? Because he can't see that for all. He is a young person with no regard for the future. He just thinks to himself, I'm hungry right now, feed me right now, I want to eat this tasty food right now, nuts to my birthright, what's that, what good is that going to do? That's decades from now. That's not going to help me until decades from now. See, this is a foolish trait amongst young people, isn't it? Go to Hebrews chapter 12. And so if you're a young person listening to me today, you need to decide you're not going to do these stupid things that I'm listening today, number one being having no regard for the future. You need to stop and think about your life and realize that you are going to live on this earth most probably for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years, all the way to 70, 80 years. That's the average life expectancy. Even the Bible says man's days are three score and 10 and possibly four score. And so chances are, you know, you're going to live that long. You need to think about the future and not just only be able to see what's right in front of you. Look what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 16, commenting on the Esau story. It says, lest there be any fornicator, fornicators are those who go to bed with someone before they're married, or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. When you disregard the future and live to gratify the flesh now and to just have fun now and to feel good now, there's going to come a time when you have bitter weeping and sadness and sorrow and where you hate life and it's going to be too late to fix it. That's what the Bible is saying. He sought a place of repentance. He didn't find it, though he sought it carefully with tears. You know, pleasure for a moment, pain for a lifetime. That's what happened to Esau and that's exactly what's going to happen to you. Flip over to chapter 11 while you're there in Hebrews and we can see on the other hand a list of godly examples. What did they do? Verse 13, these all died in faith, Hebrews 11, 13, not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. So are these people only looking at what's right in front of them? They're seeing things afar off. They're thinking about the future and God's promises that are going to be fulfilled if they put their nose to the grindstone now, if they work hard now and serve God now and obey God now, that they're going to receive great blessings off in the future. But of course the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 9, he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off. He's blind. He can't see afar off and he had forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. You see, there are a couple different types of blindness. One is where you can't see what's right in front of you and the other one is where you can't see things that are far away, right? There's being nearsighted and farsighted. And too many young people are shortsighted. They can see what's right in front of them but they can't see down the road how their life is going to be and they can't understand that they need to sow the seeds now so that they can reap a good harvest later and not sow seeds of wickedness now and then reap the whirlwind later. So it's important that they have a regard for the future. What am I talking about today? I'm talking about young people committing fornication, right? Messing up their life because they can't see that in the long run that is something bad for them. It's bad for their life. It's bad for their marriage. It's bad for their soul and the Lord is going to punish them. I'm talking about getting tattoos. You say, well, where does the Bible mention tattoos? Well, I'm glad you asked Leviticus 19.28, ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord. The Bible says don't print any marks on you, period, okay? Tattoos are not godly. I don't care if you're tattooing John 3.16. Don't get a tattoo. Now obviously there are many people who already have tattoos and there's this thing about tattoos. They're permanent. So I'm not here to chastise anybody who has a tattoo. Probably half our church has a tattoo because that's just the culture that we're living in in the United States. I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands but if I did, literally half the hands in this room would probably go up for having a tattoo. Why? Because that's the society we're living in but the bottom line is those things are permanent and young people often go out and get a tattoo. Why? Because they are not seeing afar off. They are not having any regard for the future. They're not thinking about what that tattoo is going to be like when they're 50, 60, when they're a grandparent. That's not what they're thinking about. They're just thinking about, oh, this looks cool right now and then later they're going to hate that tattoo. I guarantee you that of the people in this room that have tattoos, many of them, if they could push a button and remove that tattoo, virtually all of them would do it. The vast majority would remove it but it's permanent and don't believe these lying commercials and these lying billboards, oh, tattoo removal, piece of cake, wrong. I have known many people who went down to those places and spent money and tried and went to session after session and I have never seen one successfully removed and people come to me and always tell me, oh, you're so wrong about that. Really? Because I've still never seen one successfully removed, never, except on the infomercial. If you look up on the ads where it's just like a magic eraser, it's just coming right off. That is a lie. OK. I have seen person after person that I personally know go down there and show me their melted flesh from getting that thing glazed up. It's excruciating pain. It costs about 20 times as much to get the thing removed as to get it put on. It's excruciatingly painful and you still see the thing. It's just faded. I'm telling you, tattoos are permanent, young people. Get it through your head, teenager. Don't think to yourself, oh, I can always remove this later. Wrong. You get a tattoo, that thing is permanent. OK. And think about the big picture of your life. Are you still going to want that tattoo 20, 30, 40 years from now? Probably not. Probably not. Don't get a tattoo. Don't fornicate. But we see young people that have no regard for the future. Doing what? Getting fired from their job, reckless driving, drunkenness, taking drugs, destroying relationship with key members of their family, destroying relationship with friends, destroying their relationship with their church, ruining their reputation. Why? Because they're just looking at right now. They're self-destructive because they're not thinking about their whole life ahead of them where they're going to have to live with the consequences of what they do right now. I mean, that's what we see in Luke 15. He just thinks, man, this is going to be fun. I'm going to go into a far country. I'm going to get as far away from mom and dad as I can. I'm going to go to the casino. I'm going to go to the gentleman's club. I'm going to go out and party. I'm going to drink. I'm going to experiment with drugs. But he screws up his life. He ends up in a pig pen, starving, humiliated, and has to come home humiliated and face his dad. And his dad is gracious to him, representing, of course, the Lord and so forth. But this is not a role model for us to go out and party and waste our lives and do that. And you know what? He missed out on the inheritance. Now, he's not going to inherit the farm. And everything is going to go to his brother. His brother is going to get everything because he wasted his portion of it. That's the way life is. So number one, they don't have any regard for the future, unfortunately. Number two, young people, they often think that they are invincible. Go to Proverbs chapter 7. Proverbs chapter 7, number one, stupid things that young people do, number one, is having no regard for the future. Another stupid thing that young people do is to think that they are invincible. What do I mean by that? They think that they can play around with sin and that it's not going to affect them because they know that they can handle it. I know I can handle it. I can handle drinking. I'm not going to become a heroin addict. I'm just going to fool around with some soft drugs. I'm not going to become a drunkard. I'm just going to become a social drinker. I'm just going to look at a little pornography, but I'm not going to let it take over and get addicted. Well, I'm just going to fool around with my girlfriend, but I'm not going to fornicate. I'm not going to go all the way. This is how young people think. They think that they're invincible. They think they can get on that motorcycle and just fly down the freeway at 90 miles an hour, 100 miles an hour, and they're not going to crash. Everything's going to be fine. No helmet. It's suicide. They go out. They drive their car recklessly. They think they're just invincible. They think they can play with sin. They think they can do all these dangerous activities and that nothing bad is going to happen. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 7, verse 5. Proverbs is a book that's directed at young people. It says in verse 5, that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger with flat earth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding. So he sees a simple young man who doesn't understand the world. And you know what? They don't really expect young people to have the same understanding of the world as people that are older. They just haven't seen enough. They don't have the experience. But they think that they do. They think they're invincible. And so this young man, it says in verse 8, passing through the street near her corner, and he went the way to her house. He knows that there's a sleazy woman down that street. And I don't think he planned on going into that house and committing adultery with this woman. But what he does is he just likes to go by there, probably just to check it out. He's probably curious. He wants to get close to sin. He wants to fool around with sin. He wants to just play with fire, and he thinks he's not going to get burned. So he goes the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart. You say, what's the attire of a harlot? Pretty much what's popular for women to wear in 2018 is the attire of a harlot, if you want to know. She's loud and stubborn. Her feet abide not in her house. Now she without, now in the streets. And watch this, and lieth and waited every corner. Now how can one person be at every corner at the same time? You know what this is saying? That there are women like her at every corner. This woman is not unique. This woman is not someone that's hard to find. You know the Bible said the virtuous woman, who can find her? Her price is far above rubies. Whereas this kind of sleazy, easy woman is so easy to find, you pretty much just pick a corner and she's going to be there. This is easy to find, he's saying. And so she lies in wait at every corner. So she caught him and kissed him, and with an impudent face, said him, now newsflash young people, if she's just immediately kissing you when you first meet her, you're not the first guy that she's ever done that to. And you certainly won't be the last. This type of woman has problems. This type of woman is probably an abuse victim. She's got serious daddy issues or whatever's wrong with her. There is something wrong with a woman who is just hanging on every guy that she meets. She's just immediately sitting on your lap, immediately kissing you, immediately all over you. Why? Because she is a wicked person. You know, I mean, hopefully somebody could win her to Christ and straighten her out, but right now, she's got serious problems and you need to flee that kind of person, young people. Well it's fun to hang around with her. Okay, you think you're invincible, don't you? Because look what happens. She kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me. This day, have I paid my value? I'm a Christian. Oh, you're a Christian, great. So am I. From your lap, right? From hanging all over you and she just met you five minutes ago. But she's a Christian too, great. Therefore came I forth to meet thee. What was your name again? Right? She makes it sound like she specifically went to meet him. She doesn't care. She's there to meet anybody. Oh, I diligently sought your face and I found thee. Verse 15, I've decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I've perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves for the good man is not at home. He's gone a long journey. He had taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day appointed. So you could interpret this story two different ways. One way to interpret it is that this woman is married and her husband's gone. Or the other way to interpret it would be that she's single and that her dad is gone. That's two different ways. So either way, it's either fornication or adultery is the sin being committed here, depending on whether the good man of the house is referring to her husband or whether it's referring to her father. But either way, it's wicked. Either way, it's a sin. And I would lean toward, it's probably talking about dad isn't home. But it could be your husband. Either way, you want to look at it. With her much fair speech, verse 21, she caused him to yield. With the flattering of her lips, she forced him. What's flattery? She's giving him all kinds of compliments. Oh, you're so big and strong. You're so handsome. You're so suave. You're so cool. Right? He goeth after her straightway. Straightway means immediately, like straight there, right? As an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till a dart strike through his liver, and as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life, hearken unto me now, therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her paths, for she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her. But the young person thinks they're stronger. Right? Oh, many strong men have been slain by her, but I'm going to be different. I'm strong enough to resist the temptation. I can play with fire without getting burned. The young people often think that they're invincible, don't they? At her house, verse 27, is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 2, flee also youthful lusts, right? Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. They think they're invincible. They think they can't get in a car accident. They think they can't get a disease. They think they can't fry their brain on bad drugs. They think they're not going to black out drunk and get abused. They think that they're not going to fry their brains and destroy their life and destroy their relationships, but they will, because there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death, the end thereof are the ways of death. Do not play with sin. Do not dabble with sin. Flee fornication. Run screaming in the other direction from these type of women and these type of temptations. Don't just go to the casino just to see what it's like, oh, I can handle it. Well, you think I'm going to become a gambling addict just because I go to the casino one time and just throw some quarters into a slot machine, fool around a little bit at the blackjack table. What does it matter? You know what? That's how it always starts. Well, one drink, one beer, you know, well, I'm just going to the bar, I'm just there for the karaoke. You know, I'm not really there for the drinking. You know, hey, I'm just going there just to make my friends happy. I just want to fit in. We're just going to shoot some pool. We're going to throw some darts. We're not really there to get drunk or something like that, right? But then you meet the sleazy bar fly. You meet that sleazy woman and you know what? She will force you. That's what the Bible said. You think you're so strong, you think you're so tough, this woman forced him. Now, look, do you think she actually literally used force? No. But she had such strong influence over him. She knew his psychology so well. She was able to manipulate him so well because she'd done this so many times that she basically, metaphorically speaking, forced him. Look, he shouldn't have even gone the way to her house. He shouldn't have even gotten closer. You know, you don't want to just hang around and look, what do young people do when you take them to the Grand Canyon? What do they do when you take them to the Grand Canyon? They walk right up to the edge, don't they? They walk right up to the edge. Why? Because they think they're invincible. I can stand right on the edge and I'm going to be just fine. Every single year virtually, young men fall into the Grand Canyon. Why? Because they think they can just walk right up to the edge and other people have fallen in, but it won't be me. But the problem is that when you walk up to the edge, what happens is sometimes you'll get struck with vertigo. If you've ever been hit with vertigo or been dizzy, it is impossible to control. It doesn't matter what you do. It is impossible not to fall over because who's ever had a bad case of vertigo where you cannot stand up? Yeah, I've had it to the point where literally I've lain in my bed and the whole room was spinning this way. I felt like I was on a ride at the carnival just going, I'm not exaggerating. The entire room was just, and I was just sitting there thinking like, how is this happening? This is the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. I was literally just flipping like this. Who's ever experienced that before, something like that? Yeah, and other times where you get, I mean if somebody spins you around, you can see what it's like if you just spin around for a while. You know, just spin around for a while. We used to do this when we were kids, right? We'd just go like this for a long time and then we'd spin and spin and spin and then you're like, oh, oh, oh. You can't stand up. But the thing is when you walk right up to the edge at the Grand Canyon or whatever, sometimes just looking down can freak you out even though you don't think it's going to. I'm a little dizzy right now by the way. But anyway, and all of a sudden you just kind of get sucked in. You know what it feels like? It feels like the entire earth just tilted like this and you just tumble in and you can't control it. That's what happens to people. But young people, they think they're invincible. They want to fool around by the edge. But see, that's just a picture of what they do spiritually. So a young person going up and fooling around on the edge of the Grand Canyon, you know, that's just a picture of how they live their life in every area, sadly. This is just a tendency among young. And I remember when I was a young person feeling invincible, thinking I was invincible, you know, not thinking about the future. I mean, when I was a teenager, I never thought about life in my 30s. I never thought about life in my 40s. The thought never entered my mind. Now I was still seeking the Lord, I still sought the Lord, but I couldn't see that far off for some reason. It's just something about being a young person. The wise person needs to understand that these are the dangers of being young and you need to make an effort to do what? To have some regard for the future. And number two, not to think you're invincible and that you can play with sin. It's pride also, isn't it, to think you're invincible? Arrogancy, thinking, oh, I'm better than the people who destroyed their lives. I can handle it even though they can't. But number three, flip over to Proverbs chapter five. Number three, they don't listen to advice. They think that they know everything. What are stupid things that young people do? They don't have any regard for the future. They think they're invincible and they don't listen to advice. It's one of the biggest mistakes that young people can make. Look at Proverbs chapter five verse one. Notice these verbs here in these first few verses. My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. What's he saying here to attend? Well, if we talked about attendance, what do we mean? That you showed up, right? There are young people that are sitting in church and their body is here but their mind is not in attendance. Their body's here but their mind is off in la-la land, right? They're not attending. When you're young and you go to church and your parents drag you to church three times a week, you know what? You'd better clock in and you'd better be in attendance and paying attention. You need to attend to the words and not think, oh, ho-hum, I already know all this. You are wrong, thou 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 17-year-old. You think you know all this? I don't even know all this and I am 36 years old. I've been saved for 30 years. I've been soul winning for 20 years and I don't know everything that there is to know and when somebody's up here preaching that's not me, man, I sit down and I shut up and I always learn something new every single time. When I read my Bible, I virtually always learn something new. Why? Because there's a lot more to learn than you think, young person. You need to attend unto my wisdom, young people. You need to attend unto your parents' wisdom. You need to attend unto God's wisdom. That means don't tune out when they're lecturing you or tune out when the preaching comes. You need to attend it and you need to bow your ear. What does bowing mean? Another word that comes up a lot in Proverbs is inclining your ear. What's an incline? It's when it's slanted, right? Slanted downward. When it says bow or incline, what's that mean? Humility. Humility. Now, it's funny. I look at my teenage son, Solomon, and he is literally almost six inches taller than my wife. He stands next to her and he towers above her but you know what? He needs to bow his ear to what she's saying. He needs to incline, no matter how tall he is, he needs to incline his ear to those words of wisdom from his mother. He needs to bow his ear. And all of us, no matter what our physical height, need to incline our ear, meaning what? Be humble enough to listen to people when they give you advice. No matter how tall or old you are, you listen. If you're wise, you bow your ear. And when you're listening, you take a humble, submissive role of saying, okay, teach me. I want to learn. I don't know everything. And then verse 2, he says that thou mayest regard. So we have attend, bow, and then regard. Regard discretion. What does regard mean? It's the opposite of how Esau felt about his birthright when he despised it. Regarding something means that you acknowledge it for the value that it has. You estimate it highly. You think it's important. He says, regard discretion that thy lips may keep knowledge. That means that when you hear something, it doesn't just go in one ear and out the other. You keep knowledge. You listen to it. And years later, you can say, hey, here's what my mom taught me. Here's what my dad taught me. Here's what I learned in church. You keep that stuff. And don't just let it go in one ear and out the other. Why? What's the danger? Verse 3, for the lips of a strange woman drop as in honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hell. I mean, look, these sleazy women, they're like demons. They're like devils, beckoning you to death and hell. That's what the Bible says. Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are movable, that thou canst not know them. And of course, you could easily flip this over to the man who's a whoremonger going out and being a predator on young girls, telling them how beautiful they are. This is all focused on the young man being aware of what? The sleazy woman. But you could flip this over to that man who tells them how beautiful they are and shows them all this attention, and they're stupid enough to think that they really are the only woman he's ever felt this way about in his entire life, or at least this week, right? That they're dumb enough to believe that, and it's the same exact thing, except they might actually even get physically forced. So it's even more dangerous for the young ladies to be around these kind of guys. And so you could flip this over. If you're a young lady, don't just think, oh yeah, get on those stupid young men who play around on the edge of the Grand Canyon. No, no, no. You young ladies need to listen up too, because these dangers are out there for you as well. These young men, smooth-talking young men, they're even going to have an easier time, in many cases, deceiving you. You better watch out. You better be careful. Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable that thou canst not know them. Even though you think you know everything, you don't know the ways of this world. You don't know the way the whoremonger or the player operates. You don't know how the sleazy women operate. Even though you think you do, you can't ponder the path of life. Her ways are moveable that thou canst not know them. Hear me now, therefore, oh ye children, depart not from the words of my mouth, verse 7. Remove thy way far from her. Come not nigh the door of her house. Don't see how close you can get to sin and play around with it. Just stay far away. Don't even go to those places. Don't even go to that party. Don't even get around those people. Just stay as far away from it as you can. Lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel. Lest thy strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger and thou mourn at the last. When thy flesh and thy body are consumed, when you're eaten up of that STD, when you're eaten up of meth addiction, cocaine addiction, heroin, you know, you laugh about that. There are people in this church who have become heroin addicts over the last many years. There are people in this church who have screwed up their lives in more ways than you can imagine. Why? Because of the wicked heart of man. When you have several hundred people in a church, you know what? People are going to deal with every sin under the sun, every sin imaginable. There's no temptation taking you but such is his common demand and you think, oh, that could never happen. Why has the pastor even mentioned heroin or cocaine? What a joke. I'll tell you why. Because there's probably somebody in this auditorium who could eventually end up doing that garbage. But not you. No, no. You're just going to drink a bud dumber and you're just going to smoke a joint and you're just going to fool around. Well, you know where that stuff leads? It leads you to the hard stuff, period. It leads you to the crack whore. It leads you to the depths of Satan and the depths of hell. But you think you're going to be different? You're wrong. Don't be a fool. Nobody as the old public service announcement used to say, nobody says I want to be a junkie when I grow up. But yet a lot of people grow up to be junkies, don't they? Look at all these homeless bums. Where did they come from? At one point they started out as a young person who thought they knew everything, who thought they were invincible, who didn't listen to their parents, who didn't listen to their teachers, who didn't listen to church. And what did they end up becoming? A drunk, a vagrant, a deadbeat, a derelict, a nonviolent psychotic offender. What did they become? Crazy, drug addicted, filled with disease, dirty, hating their life, mourning, depressed, sad, and a byword and a proverb and a sermon illustration is what they became. But what did they start, do you think they came out of the womb like that? No, they started out as just a young person who said, I don't have to listen to my parents. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to listen to what the Bible says. And that's how they ended up. With their flesh and their body consumed, covered in sores from the drugs, covered in itching sores from the STD. Why? Because they didn't listen. They didn't heed the warnings. And then what do they say at that point in verse 12? How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. But it's too late at that point. When your flesh and your body is already consumed and you figure that out, guess what, it's too late at that point. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. Look, this person started out as a church person. What's the congregation? What's the assembly? It's a church. This is a church person. And what happened to them? Their flesh and body got consumed. Why? Because they went after the strange woman. Because they went out and partied and drank and hung around with sleazy women and they wanted to just have all the fun now and not regard the future. Now here's the advice beginning in verse 15. Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. He says, look, what you want to do, son, is you want to get married and you want to enjoy your wife and you want her to only be yours and not strangers with you. You don't want to be with a woman that's being shared with everybody else. You want to get married to a wife that is for you alone, the Bible says. That's what the Bible teaches. That's what the Bible says. And you say, well, I'm 15, I'm 16. Hey, you need to wait. You need to wait. You need to be pure. You need to be a virgin when you get married and you need to just wait a few years. And you know what? In the scheme of your 70, 80, 90 year life, that two, three, four, five years that you need to wait until you get married is something that you need to just endure and not just gratify the flesh. Well, I just can't wait. Waiting is just asking too much. The biology teacher told me I'm an animal that's just wired to just hump everything that moves like a dog. That's what they're teaching not the stupid public fool system. That's what scientists say. Well, it turns out that mammals aren't wired for monogamy. Turns out that mammals, well, here's the proof. Look at a dog. It'll hump anything that breathes. You know what? The Bible calls sodomites dogs. I happen to be a human being made in the image of God, not a mammal, not a dog. I'm not an alley cat. Yeah, you're right. Cats will just do whatever with all the cats in the neighborhood. That's why they have to be spayed and mutilated because otherwise they'll just keep going around and just fooling around with every cat in the whole stinking neighborhood. Well, you know what? I'm not a cat. I'm not a dog. I'm a human being. Care what that biology teacher says at Devil State University? You need to understand that you are wired for monogamy by the Spirit of God. You know what? You say, well, we're just not wired. Yeah, it's called a sin nature. Why don't you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, get saved, read the Bible, pray to God, and you know what? He'll rewire that stupid part of your brain so you won't act like an animal. You don't think God can fix your brain to where you actually desire your spouse, where you can actually be faithful to one person? You know what? People have been doing it for thousands of years. You think everybody for thousands of years just commits fornication and adultery? That's a lie out of hell. Millions and millions and millions and millions of people before, during, and after your lifetime were a virgin when they got married and stayed faithful to that spouse until they died. Now there are plenty of examples of fornication. There are plenty of examples of adultery, but don't you tell me it's impossible to do what God demanded that you do and kill 24,000 people because they didn't do it. He killed 23,000 people in one day for fornication, but you're going to tell me, oh, it's just an unrealistic expectation. That's what they're teaching today. Isn't that what the world's saying today? Oh, that's an unrealistic expectation. Wrong. It's your reasonable service. Get an ounce of spirituality. Get an ounce of Christianity. Get an ounce of godliness and abstain from fornication and abstain from committing adultery. Oh, it's just too much to ask to be with the same person for... No! You stay faithful to your spouse until death do you part. Let the world tell you, oh, it's just normal for you, you filthy whore. I don't care what PhD you think you are, you stinking biologist whore. You filthy, dirty, smelly, vile whore. You know what? You just want everybody to be like you, you skank. You know these women who write these articles? Oh, it turns out it's normal to express yourself and just be with every dude. You filthy, disgusting whore. Daddy didn't show you enough attention or whatever, or you got molested by your single mom's boyfriends that were a revolving door coming through every week, and they molested you and abused you, and now you want to abuse the whole world with your vile, sick philosophy? You say, I don't know if I'm comfortable with this kind of preaching. Well, you know what? I'm not comfortable with our society that is filled with whores and whoremongers. And you know what? These kids, they watch TV, and they see people going to bed on the first date, and they see all the fornication and adultery, but you know, when you come to church, I'm going to tell it like it is. It's dirty, it's vile, it's unclean, it's disgusting, it's filthy. That's what we ought to call it. Here's a word that needs to be in your vocabulary, filthy. That's filthy. You know what fornication is? It's filthy. You know what it is? It's not clean. I'm going to need some Jew to tell me that unclean is actually talking about ritual impurity. No, unclean means dirty. Look up unclean in the Bible. You know what it means? It's dirty. Now, you didn't need me to tell you that, did you? But the Jews today, they want to tell everybody that unclean is ritual impurity, had nothing to do with sanitation. No, it has everything to do with sanitation. A bunch of dirty whores and whoremongers. It's dirty, it's filthy, it's vile, it's unclean, it's gross, it's wicked. We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind today. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God and we need to look at that road ahead of us that leads from today until the wedding altar when we walk pure across the wedding altar and say, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. I can do, I will do. Why? Through the power of God, I can live like a man and not like an animal. I can be human. I don't have to be like a dog or a cat or whatever other filthy animal. I can actually be human and I can actually be clean and keep it pure. Young people need to listen to advice. They need to listen to instruction. They need to bow down their ear and realize that God's plan is that they rejoice with the wife of their youth and verse 19, let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe. Let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love and why wilt thou my son be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger. Don't you know that that leads to death? Don't you know that your flesh and your body will be consumed by that filthy woman and all her STDs and disease? Not to mention what it's doing to your spirit and your soul. What it does to your body, the STD, you know, there's a physical STD but there's a spiritual STD and a soul STD. You're damaging your body but you're also damaging your soul and you're damaging your spirit. Okay? You think you're going to have a better marriage because you screwed around before you got married? Is that what you think? You're an idiot if you think that. Well, you know, you got to make sure you experience everything, you know, otherwise you're going to feel like you missed out. That's the dumbest worldly logic but how many of you have heard that kind of logic? Yeah, all of the building. That's the world's stupid logic. Well let me tell you, I was a virgin when I got married and let me tell you something, I don't feel like I missed out on everything. Now think about how stupid that is. Let's just analyze the world's stupid logic for a minute that says, oh, go out and fornicate and sow your wild oats. Okay, well then let's say you be with person 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, which is what they're doing at ASU, right? Let's say you go through those 15 people, right, and then you finally settle down with one. Well, what if you liked something better out of that first 15? Well now all of a sudden for the rest of your life, what? Now you're just thinking, well, you know, that was better back there with person number 8. Okay, or you say, no, no, no, the person that I'm with now is the best. Okay, then why'd you need to waste your time with those 14 inferior people that you didn't even love as much, that you didn't even enjoy as much, right? Then why did it matter? Why don't you just be with the one you want? Either way, it's doomed. Are you listening to me? And, you know, maybe I'm being a little candid and frank right now, but, you know, somebody needs to shake some sense into people today with this worldly junk that says, oh, you gotta go try an experiment. It's a lie. It's of the devil. It's wrong. You know, let me just give you an illustration. You know, when I go out to eat with my wife, she constantly wants me to try her food. So you know, we go out to eat together, right, and we sit down, and I order my food, and she likes to vicariously enjoy food through me also. And I'm kinda telling her like, hey, you enjoy your food, I'm gonna enjoy my food, you know. This is what I'm eating. But she's always like, oh, you gotta try this. She always wants me to try her food, and I never wanna try her food. I'm like, no thank you, I'm happy with what I have here, no thanks. Because here's the thing. If I try her food, if, let's say her food is inferior to my food, well, you know what that means? I just wasted a bite on her food when I could've been eating my better food, number one. But number two, if her food really is as good as she claims it is, if it's actually better than what, so I can spend the rest of my meal wishing that I ordered that? Do you see what I'm saying? But you know what, I can just be as happy as a clam going to the restaurant, getting out the menu, ordering one that I like, and enjoying it, and being happy, and paying the bill and saying that was good, without sitting around wondering what I could've had or should've had or didn't have. You see what I'm saying? It's the exact same thing. You know what, this is the way the world works, children. There's a menu, okay? You pick the one you want, and that's your entree, and you know what? That's all you get. For the rest of your life, that's what you ordered. I don't like it. Well, order better. You know, think about that before you ordered then. Don't order something stupid. You know, you go to a restaurant and order something stupid, and then you want to complain about it, you ordered it. Okay? See, here's the thing. But here's what they want to do. They want to go around and sample 15 different things. You know, it'd be like if we go to the restaurant, it'd be like, let's just keep it simple. Let's keep it simple. Panda Express, all right? It's very simple. Let's say I go to Panda Express, and you know how they give you a free sample? Well, let's say I go down there, and I'm like, okay, I want to try that. All right, now let me try that. Okay, now I'm going to try that. All right, now I want to try this. Now let me try this. Now let me try this. Well, I just want to make sure I get the right thing. So I'm just going to try everything. You know what? By the time I've tried every single thing, I'm not even going to have an appetite anymore. Right? And then I finally find the one that I want, and I don't even have an appetite anymore. You know? And then here's the thing about that is that, you know, you try this one, this one, this one, this one. At least at Panda Express, you can order whichever of those you want. Like at Panda Express, you could try all 15 entrees and then say, okay, I'm going to pick the one I like the best, right? That's not the way it works when you're dating and whoring around, because you might be like, okay, now I want to go back to number eight. But number eight's gone. Number eight's married to somebody else now. So then you've got to settle for number 11, but then you're thinking about how you wish you were actually with number eight. You really wanted that honey walnut shrimp. That's what you really wanted, but you had to settle for that, you know, Kung Pao chicken or whatever. See, the point is, you can't win that way, folks. It's stupid. Or let's say you try them all, try them all, try them all, try them all, try them all. And then you're finally like, wow, you know, turns out orange chicken really is the best menu item. Idiot, everybody knows that orange chicken's the best menu item. You could have just skipped the sample and just ordered orange chicken. Everybody knows orange chicken's the best item. See you should have listened to your teachers, listened to godly counsel from your parents and your pastor telling you orange chicken, you know, and then you wouldn't have to go find out for yourself and reinvent the wheel, right? But anyway, the point is, let's say you go try all 15 of them and then you're like, okay, I'll take orange chicken, right? Well, but now you have no appetite. You can't even enjoy the orange chicken as much as if you would have just ordered orange chicken with fried rice and chow mein, of course, on the side. But the point is, you know, you've already killed your appetite. And that's what people are doing. They go out and they kill their whole appetite by just giving themselves whatever they want, just unbridled, sleeping around, and then they just kill their appetite. And then they wonder why they have problems in their marriage, why their marriage is screwed up. You know, that's part of it. And, you know, I'm, listen, I'm not trying to chastise people and I don't want this to come across the wrong way. I'm not trying to chastise people who committed a lot of fornication. I'm not trying to chastise people who committed adultery a long time ago or people who got tattoos a long time ago. That's not what I'm trying to do. You know, if you were the one who played around on the edge of the Grand Canyon, I'm not trying to chastise you. I'm glad you're alive. What I'm trying to do with my sermon this morning, and I don't want people to get offended, like, oh, man, he said I was dirty. You know, look, every cell in your body is replaced every seven years. So hopefully you're cleaned up by now. But the bottom line is that I'm talking to the young people today. And you know what? If you're offended by it, your heart's not right with God, because you shouldn't want young people to go out and make the same mistakes you made, like, ah, Pastor, I hurt my feelings. Hey, I'm talking to the young people who haven't screwed up yet so that they can do it right. And you know what? The young people need to hear this preaching, because you know what? I heard this kind of preaching and it gave me the fear of God. And we need this kind of preaching to counteract the devil's lies that says, oh, sample everything on the stupid menu. Wrong. You don't sample anything on the menu. You look at it. You look at it and you decide this is the one, and you choose wisely. You don't just only choose by the appearance. Well, that's a shiny looking meat there. That's a shiny vegetable. No, no, no. You choose based on the content of the character. You pick a young man who's actually going to be a provider. You pick a young man who actually loves the Lord Jesus Christ. You pick a young man who's actually going to be faithful to you. You pick a young lady that actually is a virtuous woman, not just, oh, she's gorgeous. I'm glad she's gorgeous, but there better be something else there. There better be some content there. There better be some nutritional value there, not just a junk food of a person. Where did I leave off in the chapters, anybody remember? Verse 21, for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holding with the cords of his sins. And here's the key phrase, verse 23, he shall die without instruction. And in the greatness of his folly, he shall go away. Go straight. If you don't listen to instruction, you're going to die. You will die. If you don't listen to advice, you're going to die in a car crash. You're going to die falling off that cliff. You're going to die from that STD. You're going to die from the murderous rage of the husband of the woman that you're committing adultery with. You're going to die. You're going to die. You're going to be eaten up. Your flesh is going to be consumed. Your soul is going to be damaged goods. Why? Because you didn't listen. You've got to listen in church. And look, some sermons are more entertaining than others. Listen to all of them. Some preachers are more dynamic than others. Hey, listen to all of them. Incline your ear. Some parents might be more philosophical than others. Hey, listen to all of them. Listen to the people who are giving you godly wisdom and sound advice. Don't be a fool. Here's the conclusion of the matter. Let's flip over to 1 John chapter 2. We'll close on this. 1 John chapter 2. So we said, number 1, stupid things that young people do, they have no regard for the future. Number 2, they think they're invincible, so they play around with sin. Number 3, they don't listen to advice because they think they know everything. These are the foolish mistakes that young people can make. So what's the conclusion of the matter? The conclusion for the young person is obviously to do the opposite of those three points and to seek the Lord now in the days of your youth. You must seek the Lord now when you're young. The Bible said in Ecclesiastes 11, 10, therefore remove sorrow from my heart and put away evil from my flesh for childhood and youth are vanity. Remember now the Creator in the days of my youth while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them. He says, look, you need to remember your Creator now before the evil days come and when the evil days come, you know how you're going to feel? He said, you're going to say I have no pleasure in them of the years of your life. You're going to get to a point where you wish you were dead is what he's saying. I mean, imagine getting to the point in your life where the years pass and you say I have no pleasure in the years of my life. I'm ready to just die because there's no enjoyment. Look, do you think that the heroin addict lives a life of enjoyment? Do you think that the whoremonger even enjoys those one night stands anymore? I guarantee you that he gets to a point where he doesn't enjoy them at all. And you know what? I don't have to be stupid enough to go learn that from experience. I can just learn that from reading the Bible and from getting the experience of others who've gone down that dark path and understood that eventually it's just going to get to where they don't enjoy it at all. And you know the godly Christian enjoys more intimacy with his wife than the whoremonger does with one night stand after one night stand. Now I'm sure the first few times it's super fun and exciting. Why? Because that's the pleasures of sin for a season. You know, I'm sure it's just super fun and exciting the first time you go out and party and drink in the casino, but you know what? The end thereof. You've got 70 years ahead of you and you're going to have super fun college and then have a stupid life. Look there are people that could stand up and testify. Obviously we're not going to do this, but there are people who could stand up and testify and say, hey, you know what? I've suffered for years and years as a result of dumb decisions I made as a young person. I have suffered for a decade now because of the stupidity of my youth. I mean, I guarantee you there'd be all people all over the building who could get up and tell you that. All over the building. They would say, oh yeah, I screwed up and I'm still suffering. I'm still in pain. Whether it's physical or spiritual or emotional or whatever. What's the answer? Let no man despise thy youth. You say, oh Pastor Anderson is down on young people. I'm not down on young people. I don't despise your youth. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. See, the average young person, they just like that part, let no man despise thy youth. Oh, don't look down on me because I'm young. Why are you getting on me, Pastor Anderson? Why are you acting like I'm stupid because I'm young? Because you are stupid, that's why. And you know what? If you weren't stupid, you wouldn't have that attitude toward the preaching. If you were smart when you heard this preaching, you wouldn't think it's condemning you for being stupid unless the shoe fits and you're putting it on. Because if you actually are one who does see the future afar off, if you actually are one who does listen to advice, if you actually are one who does not think you're invincible, you know what you're thinking, young teenager, is, boy, I'm glad I'm learning this stuff now so I don't make a train wreck out of my life. You know what? If you don't want people to despise your youth, here's how you get your parents to quit dumping on you. Here's how you get your parents off your case. Here's how you get the pastor off your case. Here's how you get the boss at work off your case. You be an example of what? Purity. Right conversation. Right spirit. Having faith. That's what the Bible says. Let no man despise thy youth. What's the opposite? But be an example of what? The believers in word. That means the things that come out of your mouth are an example. Your conversation is an example. Your charity, your spirit, your faith, and your purity are an example. Do that and nobody's going to despise your youth. You think somebody's going to look at some godly, pure, righteous, young person and say, oh, young punk. No one's ever said that and no one ever will. If somebody's calling you a young punk, it's probably because you're a young punk, right? And think about the whole punk movement in the late 70s, right? 1977. The whole punk ethos was about what? Nihilism. What was it about? Just self-destructive. Just nuts to the whole world, right? Just hating and not caring about anyone. That's what the whole punk movement was about. That's what punk music was about. The punk culture. You know, those of you who know what I'm talking about. Young people are like, what's he talking about? I wasn't even alive back then, but I still know about it. I was born in 1981. But anyway, let's close in 1 John 2, verse 14, it says, I've written unto you fathers because you've known him that is from the beginning. I've written unto you young men because you're strong and the word of God abideth in you and you've overcome the wicked one. You know what? That's what it's going to take, young people. The devil is out to get you. The devil is out to, you've got to overcome him. And how are you going to do that? You've got to be strong. What does it say in verse 14? You've got to be strong. You've got to have God's word abiding in you and you've got to overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Make a longer view, right? Don't be short-sighted. It's not even just the 70 or 80 years. It's eternity. I mean, yes, 70 years is a long time. 70 years is a very long time. But then there's even eternity. So don't be stupid and nihilistic punk who thinks, oh, yeah, it's just I'm a teenager, 20s, and I'm going to be like all the rock stars and die when I'm 27. Stupid and foolish. Let's buy our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for giving us wisdom and advice, Lord, and thank you for putting people in our lives, godly parents, teachers, pastors, counselors, mentors, brothers and sisters in Christ, brothers, sisters physically, cousins. Lord, just help us to take heed unto the godly people in our lives to listen to your word, to listen to the preaching of your word, and, Lord, help us not to make these foolish mistakes that young people often make, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.