Address—Marc Debu
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Let's look to the Lord for its health.
A gunpowder. This song truly is a prayer.
And the prayer is the desire is that the Lord Jesus would be our object and our lives down here.
Umm, we realize we live in a world full of distractions, but help us Lord, you have a single eye. Help us Lord to be focused, to be focused on the Lord Jesus and to eternity that's ahead, not only a few days down here. So we pray now for help as we open thy word. We pray that we all would have open ears and hearts ready to to receive what thou has to say to us.
Umm, we pray this Lord Jesus and thy worthy name, Amen.
We'd like to start with umm, a couple of verses and second Peter chapter one.
And we'll start from verse one.
Second Peter, chapter one, verse one.
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
Through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
And tonight, I have it on my heart to speak specifically, umm, to those that are.
Teenagers or close to teenagers or maybe a little older that are, you know, approaching 20 years old and so on. Because I wanna talk to you.
All of you guys and girls a little bit.
As about being the next generation, you know, we don't know how long the Lord is gonna leave us here. We expect him to come at any moment.
But the Lord is all wise, and maybe we are gonna be here for some more years and umm.
There are gonna be those. If that's the case, they're gonna pass away and they're gonna be spots that need to be filled up. And so I wanna talk to you, umm, as being those that Lord willing, would go on and fill those spots, step up, grow and be a help, umm.
And your local assembly, but just be a help when it comes to being a testimony for Lord Jesus Christ in this world. You know, I think I can speak for all of us here that are a little older, that it's our desire that each one of you would have or would be successful in life. And we're talking about in your spiritual life, you know, as parents. And there's some here that are grandparents.
It's such a burden to each one of us to see our children or grandchildren, our young people.
To go on for the Lord and so I want to talk to you a little bit about that and I read these verses to start with to show us that to be successful in our spiritual life is something that is very much within our reach. You know, we think when we look around us about so much discouragement that there is, but this third verse here tells us that.
The Lord, according to His divine power, had given unto us all things that pertain.
Until life and godliness and uh, you know, maybe very simply, I take that to be that the Lord has given us everything that we need to be able to follow him to be God like in our lives down here. You know, God hasn't asked us to follow him and not, not given us the resources to do that God has given us.
Everything that we need to lead successful, fruitful Christian lives down here. And so that's.
That's a tremendous thing, umm, to think about. We're not asked to do this by ourselves. The Lord has provided all things that we need. We have the Word of God, we have the Holy Spirit within us. We have a high priest on high. We have fellow believers that God has given us to encourage us. He has given us everything that we need to be successful. The Lord wants us to be successful, and He's gonna help us if we have a desire to do that.
But this morning, umm, I think it was Josh, he quoted that verse from Psalm 21 That the Lord desires truth in the inward parts. And we spoke about how we need to be real in our lives, not being hypocrites. Well, there's another thing that we need to be real about, and we need to be real about the times that we live in, you know, God and His word.
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From Genesis to Revelation, there's an order.
To God's Word, not everything is the same. And you know, you've probably heard the word dispensation a lot of times. And we need to know if we wanna serve the Lord in an intelligent way, we need to know where we are at in God's, umm, timeline, if you wanna call it that. You know, dispensation means house economy. House order is the way in which God deals with its people at a certain time.
Today we live in the day or the dispensation of grace. God deals with us in grace. We are saved by grace. We preach the gospel of grace. God deals with us in grace as opposed to.
What they used to be the dispensation of law.
And we live at the very last days of that dispensation. And let's turn to Second Timothy, chapter 3.
Verse one. It says this. Know also that in the last days perilous or difficult times shall come.
And so, young people, you need to realize that we're in those very last days. We are in difficult times. The world is very much opposed to anything that has to do with Christianity. And so if you wanna be successful, that's something we need to realize, the times that we live in.
And I'm going to ask a question now, and I think in this room, probably almost every assembly from the Northwest here is represented. And I'm gonna ask one question to several people. I'm gonna ask it to people that are a little bit older, young people that are a little bit older. And the question is this, when you think back when you were a little child.
And you compare it to today, your home assembly.
Are there more people or less people? I'm gonna make a point.
Kevin, you're from Walla. Walla. Is it more or less? Less. OK, Umm, let's hear. Jonathan, why don't you? I don't know if there's any people that you're from Richmond, BC what would it be? All right, let's see. Caleb, I don't see where you are, but you're from Spokane.
Is Caleb here?
He's he's not here. OK, well, there's some others here. Who, umm who's there here from Tacoma that could answer that question? How about you, Heidi? What do you think?
About the same. That's good. It doesn't have to be less.
Umm, who else do we have? Where's Cody or Michael from tri-cities?
There might be more praise of the Lord. That's great. That's wonderful.
Umm Gresham? Anybody from Gresham or Vancouver that area?
Less people. All right, I'm gonna speak for Kirkland and Marysville. It's left there too. And so, you know, there was a couple that said, umm, about equal or more. And that's wonderful. It just shows us that even the last phase, the Lord is working. You know, we can't limit the Lord. He, he can do whatever. But I think we will notice as kind of a, an, an general.
Answer to that. And if we would go across the country, I think it would certainly would be like that.
The answer would be less.
And, and we have to be honest about that. We live in the last days. If we expect, especially as young people, for things to get better and things to grow when it comes to numbers, we're probably gonna end up being disappointed and discouraged.
But the fact that it is less in most cases, it does not have to be a discouragement. It shows us that we're very close to the Lord's coming. You know, if you look back to the previous dispensation or the way God dealt with its people, the dispensation of the law, it was exactly the same. It ended with very few in number.
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But we don't find them discouraged. Let's look at Malachi chapter 3.
And verse 16, it's a verse that we.
All know very well it says then, then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord heart, and then heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And so here this is the last book, umm, not only in the Old Testament, but also time wise, the last three books, umm, time wise when it came to that time. And then we have about 400 years that we really don't have any.
Direct word from God, but that's what those that were real, umm, were occupied with. It was about talking about the Lord. If you would read the whole book of Malachi, you would find that there was a lot to discourage in those days. And then even if we would turn to the New Testament, you know, at the very end of that dispensation when the Lord actually already was on earth, you think of umm, Luke chapter 2 when the Lord was just a little baby and they brought him to Jerusalem to.
We find two people there. Simeon and Annie would think, here's the Messiah they've waited for for so long, and when it's come to the temple, there's two people there. That's not very much. It does say that Anna then went and talked to all those that feared the Lord. So there were others, but it's a characteristic of the last days of a dispensation that there's.
Not might, say growth or even a multitude of numbers.
But again, that should not discourage us here. These people were occupied with the Lord. The Lord looked down and he approved of it and he remembered it. And that's all really, that we would seek after. It's the Lord's approval. And so again, as young people, umm, I don't think it would be right to expect that things.
In the Christian testimony that things among the gathered Saints.
Are gonna grow in that sense. Now, there's different kinds of growth. Numbers is just one of them, and it's not the most important one by a long shot. You know, I come from an assembly in Belgium where when I grew up there were about 14 people.
And now let's say 30 years later, there's eleven people, but I can tell you and there's others that have visited that that assembly has grown tremendously, tremendously and so growth.
Is different. You know, there can be a great amount of people with a lot of deadness. You know, if you would have gone when the Lord Jesus was on earth to Jerusalem, you would have seen a lot of religious activity, a lot of things going on that might have even looked good.
To the natural eye, but the Lord didn't find very much there that he could identify with, that he could be pleased with so much show that the last week of his life before umm, he went to the cross. He spent his evenings outside of Jerusalem. There was not a place of rest for him there. When he went into Jerusalem, it was to cleanse the temple. It was to tell the leaders how bad they have done.
That's but again, from an outside point of view it would have looked good.
Because we later read and ask that the Ethiopian eunuch went to Jerusalem to find answers and he didn't find it. He found it outside. And so we shouldn't, umm, it's, it's a natural thing to kind of look up or stand in awe of, of outward display of, of great numbers. But that's not what we should be looking at. Let's go back.
Umm, to.
Uh, second Timothy.
For another verse of encouragement and and brother Matt, he referred to it. So we've already seen that the Lord has given us all things that we need to be successful in our spiritual lives down here. And it's Second Timothy 2, the last part of verse 22.
It says follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them, that call on the Lord out of the pure heart. And so one of the things that I mentioned that the Lord has given us is fellow believers that can help us, that can encourage us, and that we too can be an encouragement to hear. So here you look and there's, you know, a big group of kids, young people, and it's wonderful to see, very wonderful to see.
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Realize the effect you can have.
On one another, you know, from when you're young and especially as you go through the teenage years and becoming an adult.
The company that you have, the friends that you have.
Are often to a large extent kind of determine where you're gonna end up. You know those that have that are a little older we've probably often seen people that start having friends that we're like that's not a good sign and then a few years later you ask where so and so they're they're gone they're gone they've been LED away by bad company. So that's one thing to be very.
Careful of and to think about, you know, because we, we choose our friends. That's something there's certain things in life that we can't choose, but we can choose who we wanna hang out with and that choice is gonna have a huge influence on our lives. So, you know, there's an appeal here to to choose good friends, but also to try to be a good influence and encouragement to those that are your friends.
Let's go to chapter one of, uh, Second Timothy and I was talking about the next generation.
And, umm, you know, we often hear people say that the Christian pathway is not a Sprint, it's a marathon. And that's very true in our individual lives. The Lord really appreciates consistency. You know, there's people.
That have run the race for 80 or 90 years and the Lord values that so much. But it's something else too. It's not only a marathon, but it's a relay race too. We pass on the baton. Here's generations. And Paul speaks about that, that he has to find faithful man to pass on the truth, who can teach the truth to others also. And so throughout Christianity, that's how it's gone. There's been many faithful men that lived.
Times serve their generation and then they passed on. They died. But then another generation steps in. And so, you know, looking over this room, most people here are the next generation. There's not too many here, except for the parents that are around my age. Most of you people are young people. You know, think about that. About a month ago, I was talking to somebody who wasn't in his early mid 20s.
And he'd been at the Walla Walla conference, he'd been at the Kirkland conference. And he said.
Yeah, I was kind of thinking after those conferences, he said. I really enjoyed the things that were said, but I was looking around and I was seeing a lot of old people, he said. And it's true. And he said, I was thinking, you know.
In 1015 years, a lot of them might not be here anymore.
And he said, and I'm going to be one of those that probably or that better get going. And you know, I talked to him from he said that's that's true because that's how it goes. And you know, if you think all of us representing quite a few local assemblies, you think about that there's probably quite a few people in your assembly that if the Lord leaves us here a little while longer, might not be here anymore.
And don't just think about those that take, umm, you know, a public pardon, speaking in the reading meetings or preaching the gospel.
Because there's many, many parts to a well functioning assembly. It's not just those that talk that might be the most obvious, that there's gonna be older ones that pass away. That old son said, hey, there's nobody here that comes and cleans the meeting room anymore. There's all kinds of things that need to be done that the body of Christ as individual members, we work together. And so you young people, all of you have.
Some function in your local assembly, but if we look at it larger too, in the body of Christ.
And so, yes, for it to continue to function well, the Lord wants each one of you to be serious, to be real, to step up, to fill whatever function that the Lord has for you. And so in chapter one, Paul says this to Timothy. And, and think of it this way. Second Timothy is the last epistle that Paul wrote that we have in the word of God. You know, he talks in chapter 4 how he was soon to be offered.
His path of service down here was about to come to a close and Timothy was a younger brother. And it's like Paul is saying here, I'm, I'm about at the end, you need to step up now. You need to take over. I mean, we all are different. The Lord has a different, umm, plan with each one of us. So he wasn't supposed to do exactly what Paul did, but he was supposed to do what God had for him to do. And so we don't need to copy people.
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But we need to realize that God has a plan for each one in our lives. And he says this in umm, verse 6. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God. That's what Paul told Timothy.
And we'll talk maybe a little later a little bit about gifts, but what I wanna focus on here in this verse is that he says stir up if we are going to be a help to the Lord's people.
Action is required. It's not going to happen by just sitting back. We need to do, we need to be active, we need to be energetic. Of course, everything needs to be done independent upon the Lord, led by the Holy Spirit. But we need to get with it. If you wanna get, you know, everybody realizes and we find it natural that if you wanna get somewhere in the world.
You need to go for it. You need to be active. But it seems like we we don't have the same idea when it comes to spiritual things if we just gonna sit back. We think that somehow when we turn 40.
It will just happen. That's not how it works. That's not how it works. You know, I live in Seattle and I think literally within 10 miles of where I live, the two richest people in the world live.
And if you look at the lives of those people, you know, obviously they were successful. They're the two richest people in the world and the way the Lord the world looks at it. But those people were extremely driven. They went for it. They gave their lives for whatever they were pursuing and they, they were successful. They made it. And so sometimes it's, it's kind of a good thing to meditate upon. Why do we see so many people that.
In natural things.
Are so successful, have gotten so good. You think of people that are aptly think and do great things. It's because of a lifetime of dedication. None of them woke up one day and could do what they did or were able to accomplish something. It all took a lot of hard work. And so in the Christian pathway, if we want to grow, we will need to have energy. We will need to be active.
And umm, let's turn to Chapter 3 again.
And now verse 14, you know the 1St 13 verses of that chapter are taken up with all kind of the bad things, the evil that would become more and more as time went on in the Christian testimony. But now he says this in verse 14. But continue thou and the things which thou hast learned and have been assured of knowing of whom thou hast heard them.
And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Yeah, I wanna tell you this, young people.
If you want to be successful in your Christian life, each one of you has a huge head start and be very thankful for that. Just the very fact that you're here, you can hear these things your parents have brought you here means that you've had parents, grandparents, whatever that have had a desire that you would be successful in the Christian life. You know, there's no doubt some here that we're, uh, saved later in life and didn't.
That background, now Timothy, he had heard the scriptures from a child. Now for Timothy, that would obviously have been the the Old Testament because the New Testament wasn't there yet. But then he had been with Paul who had expounded to him the truth that we have in the New Testament. And so if you live in a Christian home and you hear the scriptures being read and you're able to go to meeting and again hear the scriptures, you have a huge, huge head start.
Now have you, you know, probably most of you have gone to a track and the Oval is 400?
Meters, 440 yards. What if you did a 440 yard race and you got to start halfway? That would be pretty nice, wouldn't it?
It still doesn't mean you're gonna win because there's still 200 yards of opportunity to stumble or to go outside the lines and be disqualified. And so it doesn't mean that you automatically going to be successful. But it's a nice head start. It's a nice head start. Appreciate that. And when you have readings at home when you're able to go to meeting.
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Be thankful for it, pay attention, know if you spend the 1St 18 years of your life listening to the things that are said, you're gonna be far, far ahead of somebody who gets saved later on in life. And so Timothy here, he had that too. But then Paul has to tell him, stir up the gift that's within you. You've had all these advantages by hearing the scripture from a child.
But you still need to get with it. You still need to go on. You still need to press on because.
There are many that get that head start and still are not successful in their spiritual life. And so we need to keep the object, the price in mind. Just like we read, there's many objects, things that our heart can be occupied with that are not Christ. And so we need to be very careful that we, uh, continue in the path that our parents have set us on.
And then the last two verses it says all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness. Thus the man of God, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And so when it comes to walking, the being successful is gonna be based on the word of God. It's gonna be based on the word of God. This is where we learn about the Lord. This is where we learn about Christian truth. This is where we find what we need to be.
Successful. You know, if Uncle Vern Clark would be here, he would say something like, and I can't quote it exactly, but he would would say we have not. How does he say we don't have a spark of light or a little bit of light in this inky darkness of eternity if it wasn't for the word of God? I didn't say that right, Dale, Did I? But it was something like that. It was pretty. Yeah. I've heard him say that a couple of times. And he's right. If we didn't have the word of God.
We wouldn't have a clue. We wouldn't have a clue. We would be hopelessly lost. So appreciate all that you have and don't neglect yourselves, no matter how old you are to be occupied with the word of God, you'll never go wrong. Be occupied with the word of God. All right, now I want to look quickly and I'll have a watch. Let me know if I'm going too long. Umm, I wanna look quickly at 2 old stories in the New Testament.
That I think help us. Thank you.
When did we start?
All right, that that will help us. And the first one is in Matthew 25.
And it's it's two portions that we're all very familiar with.
Matthew 25 and verse 14.
For the Kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave 5 talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man, according to his several abilities, and straightway took his journey. Nahida had received the five talents, went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents, and likewise Cedar had received two. He also.
Game too, but he had received one. Wenden digged in the earth and hit his Lord's money. After a long time. The Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received the five talent game and brought other five talent, saying, Lord, thou delivered us unto me 5 talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou have been faithful over a few things.
I will make the ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou delivers unto me two talents. Behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make the ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Well, I don't really want to talk about gifts. There's several chapters in the New Testament that talk to us about gifts and how the Lord that gives us gifts and it says that He gave gifts unto all. So.
If we look over this room and we assume that everybody is saved, everyone is a gifted person, everyone is a gifted person and is the Lord here that gives the gift And so we we don't have to. It's not something that we need to worry about. You know, the Lord is all wise and here according to his gift, according to his wisdom gives the gift and it says here according to southeast to Southeast, his several abilities so.
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He knows and he gives and so that's not what our gift is. It's something that umm, we need to be occupied with. But what I wanna focus on here is that the 1St 2 day traded with what God had given them or what their Lord had given them. And again, just like with Timothy, he was to stir up the gift that's with within him. These two, the first two, they got busy. They were active. It's a story that speaks of.
The Lord going into heaven, the far country, and in the mean time he has given us things to do. He has given us things to do. And there's going to be a time coming where it says here he came back after a long time. It's almost 2000 years now. But then he reckoned with those servants and there's gonna be a time coming that the Lord is gonna come back and we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
And we know as believers that the judgment seat of Christ is a positive thing. It's a thing where the Lord will find with each one of us.
Things which which he can say. Well done though. Good and faithful servant. You know, he's such a gracious God.
We look at our own lives and we see so much failure, but when the Lord is going to look, he's going to find things and he's going to praise us for it. And I think we're going to say really. So it's a positive thing. It the judgment seat of Christ. It's a wonderful thing to think about because you know, to think of.
Everything is gonna be exposed. We'll realize really what we were. And still the Lord loved us and died for us. It just, it's gonna make him so much more precious for all eternity. But now that we're down here, the Lord expects us to trade, to use what he has given us. And you know what's so beautiful about this story?
Is both of them. It didn't matter if they were really gifted or a little bit less gifted.
Both of them had 100% profit. You know, think of that. Five turned into 10, two turned into four. That's amazing. You know, if you go to the bank with some money and you say, hey, I want a savings account and I wanna 100% return on that savings account, or you go to a stockbroker and say, hey, I got some money that I want to invest, can you guarantee me 100% return?
If you find somebody like that, let me know, but the point is.
If we are doing being occupied with the Lord's things, with what he has given us, we will never lose. You know, if if you stock traders, there have been years that they made a big profit, but the next year they might lose it all.
But with the Lord's things, if we're occupied with the Lord's things, and that's something that we need to get hold of, we will grow, we will profit, There will be fruit. It's impossible to lose. It's impossible to lose if we would have, you know, gone back to chapter 3 thereof, Malachi, a few verses back, the Lord says prove me now, prove me now. And I don't think we do that enough. I don't think we do that enough.
That we, you know, in a way, it said. The Lord is saying he's challenging us.
Test me and see if the things that I've told you, the things that I've promised you, if they're not true, and we'll find them to be true every single time. So this is something that though God guarantees us, he says if you're occupied with what I've given you to do, there will be growth.
You know, makes me think of that. You know, we all know the parable of the sower.
And if you look at Mark's gospel, which is in Mark, the Lord has presented as the servant. So one who works, it speaks of when the seed falls in the good ground, it will bring a fourth fruit, 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold, the growth. And that's how it works for us as Christians. As we're growing, as we're getting older and we are occupied with the Lord of things, there's more and more fruit.
And.
Well, this kind of side note, but in Matthew it says 100 fold to 60 fold and 30 fold. What I talked about we're living at the end of the dispensation. Matthew is more dispensational book and the fruit over the timeline of Christianity has gone down. You know, we're reading Acts 1. Paul Peter preached and 3000 were saved. That's a hundredfold. But now you know there's gospel meetings every week and sometimes.
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Years and nobody gets saved. That's thirtyfold.
That's the time that we live. And so we need to realize that, like I said in the beginning, the day that we live in, it's not gonna be a day of great things, but still a day for growth. It's still a day to be encouraged because the Lord is the same. That hasn't changed. Circumstances has changed. The state of Christianity has gotten lower and lower, but the Lord is the same. And we don't serve Christianity, we serve the Lord. It's true. We're part of that, and we have to own our failure in the state that there is.
But there is a path to go on for the Lord, just like there was a path to go on for the Lord in Acts chapter 2. All right, I'm gonna finish with going to the book of Acts and to read a little story there too.
Acts Chapter 20.
So Paul was here in Troas.
And he was on his way to Jerusalem and will read from verse seven. It's another well known story. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the Morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there's in a window. Excuse me, A certain young man named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep.
And as Paul was long preaching, he sung down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him, and embraced him, said, Trouble not yourself, for his life is in him, when he therefore will come up again, and have broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day. So he departed, and they brought the young man alive.
And were not a little comforted.
You know, the book of Acts as a historical book, and so we have a lot of, umm, stories about things that happened.
You know, and it's kind of interesting to think when we think of Paul's missionary journeys, some of them took three years, and no doubt many things happened. So the stories that we have in the books of Acts is just a very, very small sample of what happened to Paul during his strips. And so the Holy Spirit has chosen certain episodes, certain stories to be put into the word of God for very specific reason, because he wanted us.
To read these stories and to learn from them. And so we here, we have a story of a young man falling out of a window. But there's a lot in there that can speak to our hearts. And since I am, you know, addressing the young people, I want you guys to kind of put yourself into that place. Think of this. Paul was there. He was ready to go away the next day.
And umm, later on in the chapter, he's talking to the Ephesian elders and he tells them that they're not gonna see his face anymore. This was the last time.
And so I don't know if these people in later on got to see Paul again, but this might have been the last time that they saw Paul and they, they probably knew it. And in those days, umm, you know, somebody left, you might not see them for years. And it wasn't a time of communication like we have now. You really didn't see them or hardly ever heard from them unless a letter was written. And so I can imagine when Paul was there.
That, umm, most of them.
Would have been kind of hanging on every word because this might be the last time that they heard Paul talk to them. And so it speaks of an upper room. They were separate from the world. And it speaks of many lights.
And you know, none of us here that are a little older.
Umm, think of ourselves as very bright lights, certainly not like the Apostle Paul was or maybe some others that have gone before. Umm, you know, there's a lot of weakness in our lives and, and what we say, but still I believe that when we open the word of God and try to minister from it, it is light from God that we have.
And so.
We're here in a room too, and there's light here because the Word of God is open. And now you as a young person, you have to make a decision. Where are you gonna sit in that room? And again, it's not a physical thing really that I'm thinking about, but it's where is your heart? Are you really interested in what the Word of God says?
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Umm, does it mean something to you or are you like him? He kind of wanted to show that he was there.
But probably a lot of his thoughts, a lot of his heart was occupied by what was going outside in the world. And, uh.
You know, it's just something that I want you, especially younger people, to think about. Where's, where's your heart? Where's your thoughts? Where's your eyes? What are they looking at?
Umm, you know, we don't have Paul physically here, but we have Paul's words and no doubt the things that he told these people were the same truth that we have in his word that God has preserved from us for us for 2000 years.
And so it's a the story is a warning not just to young people, to all of us. When the word of God is opened, where are we? Are we sitting right close to Paul so we won't miss anything of what he says?
Of California or, you know, are we occupied with other things? It's something that's really searching to all of us. And I think, umm, if we wanna be successful in our Christian lives, we'll have to be close to Paul. We'll have to be close to the word of God. If we're close to the world, there is gonna be a fall. Now, you know, the story tells us.
Too, that when there was that fall, there was restoration and it's wonderful. We love it to see it when somebody.
Gets restored to the Lord, gets restored to his brethren.
But here's something young people to think about.
There does not have to be a fall.
You know, it seems like, you know, I talked to people. I'm, I'm a painter. So I go in people's homes and, uh, have a lot of customers that I work for many times and kinda start to know them and chat a little bit And they asked about the kids and, you know, last time I was there, it was five years ago. How old are the kids now and so on. I say my oldest is almost 14 and the twins are almost 12.
And so, oh, you're, you're, you're getting close to that dangerous age. It's gonna be difficult the next few years.
And the world just has that idea that when people turn into teenagers who get close to adulthood, it's normal for them to go off the deep end. It's not, it's not, it's an idea from the world. It's not what the word of God teaches us. If we continue in the past that has been shown to us or that our parents have taught us, brought us up. And there is no reason to fall from the third loft or from the third story. There is no reason to.
Do that some of us do because we don't obey what God tells us. We don't trust the Lord and we think our own way is better. But there's no reason for that. And so I want to encourage you young people to.
Umm, you know, maybe I could say here and I can say in this room, obey your parents. The very fact that your parents have brought you here shows that they want you to do well in your Christian pathway.
Every time that your parents take you to meeting, it's a proof that they have a desire that you will live your life for the Lord. Don't go against that. Don't think you know better. Don't think that there's better things out there because it's not true. It's not true. It's a lie of the enemy. And he'll try whatever he can, umm, to make you believe that or to make it look like that, but don't believe it.
You know, again, us that are a little older and some here that are quite a bit older, ask us and we can tell you that the only path for happiness is to stick close to the Lord. There really is. There's no other option. You know, when it comes to salvation, there's many ways, there's many paths that lead to perdition, that lead to destruction, but there's only one.
That leads to salvation, and that's the Lord Jesus. I am the way and I believe. It's the same with our Christian pathway.
There's many ways to fall from the third loft. You know, whatever your desire or your natural kind of interest is state has something for you and if you follow after day, you might go way off. But there's really only one way again for a Christian happy, fruitful life and it's to stick close to the Lord. There's no there's there's no other option. Do you wanna be happy in the Lord? Do you wanna hear well done the good and.
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Servant. There's only one path to walk, and that's the one that He's shown us in His Word and so.
You know, maybe in conclusion, I would like to say that.
You know, when I look over this room, there's so much promise here.
If we all would do what the Lord would have us to do, if we would all trade with what He has given us, if we would all trust Him when he said, prove me and I'll bless you and depend on me, and I'll show you that you won't be disappointed. Wonderful things will happen. There will be growth. There will be encouragement.
But we have to be real, you know, if we would go back 20-30 years ago and maybe it would have a room like this that I don't know, maybe last and last night never was that last and.
And we look at that group of people now, we would find that there might be quite a few that have gone off. And so let's be real.
I think we all have that desire. We should all have that desire if we belong to the Lord who wanna pleased him. But it's not going to happen by just floating along. It's not gonna happen. And you older young people, you understand what that means. You know, sometimes in school there's a class and you're kinda good at that, and you can float along and you can get a passing grade and you make it.
But it's really not gonna work in our Christian pathway, even Timothy.
He had traveled with the Lord, with with Paul. He had heard so many wonderful things. He had to get with it. He had to be active. He had to display spiritual energy if he wanted to make it. Well, now we live 2000 years later, things have not improved. If we think we're gonna make it by just floating along and not be real, we're gonna have shipwreck in our lives and our Christian pathway. So.
It's wonderful that we're all here this week and let's, umm, really enjoy it.
Let's really encourage each other. Let's to realize that if we wanna be here in five or ten years or 15 years of the Lord leads us here, we have to get busy with the Lord's things. Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we do thank you for thy word, We thank you for the light that it gives us, and we thank you that we do have a God who wants to help us every day to be successful in our Christian life. Oh Lord, we pray for each one here. We pray for the young people.
It's a real burden on on our hearts to see them do well, to see them go on for thee, to see them grow, to see them learn the truth, buy it for themselves.
And to, uh, vdap next generation that will carry on the testimony. Lord, we do not know when Thou will come to take us to be with Thee. We truly believe it's gonna be very soon.
And yet, Lord, we need to be busy as servants, we need to watch and we need to be ready for right coming. So help us, Lord, day by day, and we pray that this time here at camp might be a real encouragement, might stir us up. And uh, we thank you for thyself, Lord Jesus, help us to have the other object in our lives, to have a single eye. We pray this in thy worthy name, Amen.