YP Sing Address—C. Troyer
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We're going to have to call the scene. I know, I'm so sorry, but we've got a good time for good evening, young people. It's nice to see everyone. Let's start with a word of prayer. Our God and our Father, we're thankful for this time we could have for this wonderful day we could have in your word. And now as we get to the end of it, thankful for this beautiful singing. Thank you for every soul in this room. It's encouraging the Lord to see these young people, and we ask for help now as we would have one more little portion from your word. Pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
Proverbs chapter 19. I'd like to read that to introduce our subject and you can, if you don't have your Bible, you can listen and follow along that way, but Proverbs chapter 19.
And I read this verse. Excuse me, I read this verse a couple weeks ago.
And I thought, I think this is what we should talk about at Young People's.
Verse 21 There are many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord that shall stand, and I'd like to talk about the council of the Lord and I would maybe use a different word. I would use God's purposes for us.
Two years ago I got on an airplane and I sat down where I was supposed to. I sat at a window and a little bit before we took off, another man came in and he sat down in the aisle in the same row. And he was a big man and he was quite an interesting person. He had so much artistry on his body.
Probably more than I have ever seen, and I think I've seen a lot of people. His artistry was on his arms, it was on his neck, it was on his face, and he had a woman's name over his eye.
And he was, we would say, an interesting character. He looked interesting. But as I sat there, I realized that he was even more interesting because he was on his phone and he made the mistake of having his keypad on and he was sending what I would describe as rapid fire text messages to somebody.
And doing it in such fast sequence that there was no way they were responding so it was A1 sided conversation.
And he was so agitated.
He was so agitated, I guess I would say it was almost like there was a mushroom cloud over his head. He was just this ball of nerves and worked up. And I thought, wow, this is going to be a long time on the plane. And then I realized, well, after we're in the air, he's probably not going to have Wi-Fi, so this keypad noise is going to go away. That was true. Didn't say anything to him. Didn't make eye contact.
00:10:12
We started to descend into Phoenix and before we land, true to form, Wi-Fi works again. Same thing. It's just firing off message after message. Obviously the same person because the sequence was so fast. We land, lights, come on.
And he turns to me and he says.
I don't remember the exact words but said he was so jealous that I was able to relax and sleep on the airplane.
And I said, well, there's a story about that. And I pulled up one of my sleeves and I said, I was at the hospital today and I'm traveling back and I'm not feeling so good. So I pulled up one of my sleeves and he could see my bandages. And of course he had a really wide eyed response to that and wondered what what was going on. And.
So I had a chance to talk to him for a little bit and I wish I could remember more of the details of what I told him. I told him a little bit about the diseases and the health problems I have.
And I distinctly remember at the end of the conversation I said, I'm 45 years old and I'm still alive and I know that God has a purpose for my life.
And just think about the man I described.
Would you think he was insecure? Do you think he knew what he was all about?
He turned to me. Sorry, this is hard to say, but I want you to hear it. He turned to me and he said I'm 52 years old.
And I'm trying to find my purpose in life.
And as I thought about that story, young people.
I realized that when I was a young believer.
I had saving faith, but I didn't know what God's purposes were for me. I wasn't settled on that. So this man's problem is not isolated to people who may not be believers.
So tonight I'm hopefully I'm addressing this to you as if you know the Lord and I don't know. I don't, I haven't really studied and thought about what His purposes are for those that don't know Him. Obviously people who don't know the Lord can have a purpose. I don't believe it can be an eternal or a meaningful purpose. But if you know the Lord, He has a purpose for you. And I just want to go back to this word.
That we read in Proverbs. It talks about the counsels of God, and we should probably quickly go to Ephesians 1.
And this is a verse that or in many ways thankful we haven't gotten to yet in our reading meetings because I'll be interested to see what is said about this, but I'll just break in it at verse 11. Speaking of Christ, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him.
Who worketh all things after? Here's the word council of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. And here we have this word counsel again.
So in my world, in work, we sometimes say, well, we have a contract problem or we're having a problem getting paid, we need to hire a council. What does that mean when we say that at work we got to hire a lawyer, We need to hire somebody to tell us, direct us what to do?
God's counsels are not like lawyers. God's counsels, and I hesitate to take this subject up in such a short amount of time, but God's counsels for us started before Adam was created. God had a plan for the man Adam in the big picture and what would happen with all of the human race. God had that plan in place when Adam was made.
But the beautiful thing is, it becomes so much more personal if you know Him as your savior.
Part of God's councils we talk about the eternal councils of God. That's the plans He has made, the the desires he has for you, his his desire to bless you, his desire to carry you through your life and your walk here. Those are just small aspects of what His entire council is.
But before you were born, he had a purpose and he had a plan for you.
And if you know him as your savior, he wants to show you that. And I remember as a young man.
00:15:01
Sometimes it's so difficult practically. We say, well, God has a purpose for me and he's doing these things with me. And I think sometimes we focus a little bit too much on ourselves and we say, well, how do we do what he has for us to do? How do I know what he wants me to do? Why am I alive? Why do I exist? What should I work on? Should I love this person and get married to them? Should I love this person? Should I go to college here? There are all these things in front of you.
And it's overwhelming, but it's not, it doesn't need to be overwhelming from the standpoint that God already has those things implemented for you. And I agree completely. It can be overwhelming from the standpoint that he doesn't just give us a manual and say this is these are the things that are going to happen to you in life. The path of faith is not driven by formula and logic in many cases. And I just want to encourage all of you if you want to understand the.
Of God and how that practically affects the decisions you make, whether you go forward, whether you slow down.
Those are all things that come about in faith and asking for God's wisdom. And sometimes as young people, we think that we just want everything spelled out so we just know what to do. Well, it doesn't get any easier. I'm in my mid 40s. I'm closer to upper 40s now and.
I've stopped wishing that the map would just be handed to me because I've so much enjoyed what God has given me that I would have never asked for and that I would have never expected because the unexpected things and in many times the difficult things have been the exact things that I've needed. And I want to take this a step further. And, and young men, I don't want to, I don't want to pick on you if you're if you're a go getter, we say, and and you have high intensity.
And you make a lot of things happen. And there's some young ladies here that have a lot of drive. And I'm a person that's in a position professionally where I get graded pretty hard on what I achieve. Lots of people know if I do well or not in the position that I've been put in. And some days we get measured. We get graded pretty harshly on what we accomplish in a day.
And some of us get graded pretty harshly sometimes for what we don't allow or what we prevent in a day.
And what that does is we sometimes look at ourselves too much. And when when God put together his master plan for your life, it wasn't about you, it was about him. And one of the verses that I didn't focus on in Ephesians, but it talks about being to the praise of his glory. I think all of us as believers, we understand that ultimately we're here for the glory and honor of God. Well, that's a pretty big.
Umbrella to operate under. So how do we fit? How do we go in underneath that? And practically, to go back to what I was talking about, when we make it about us, it gets to be pretty difficult because we're never quite good enough and we're never quite getting enough done. And for those of you that might be graded professionally or in college for what you're achieving or getting done, that may be the reality of it, but.
Let's be cautious about bringing that mentality into our spiritual walk.
And one of the things I've really enjoyed just recently, and it's probably come about because of difficulty and experiences in life and things like that. And I'm hoping this will help all of you, especially the ones who are wired to do a lot of damage and make a lot of things happen.
God's purposes in your life may in fact be more directly connected to being.
Than they are to doing. And for those of us who want to take action, sometimes that's a really tough lesson and a lesson we have to learn many times. For those of us that are a bit more easy going, that might be an easier lesson to learn. But God is using you in ways that even you are not able to understand because in his grand scheme and his economy and the way he's doing so many things at the same time.
You personally see only a subset of what he's doing with your life.
And I'll share one more personal story and then I'll close. But as my diseases have gotten worse.
I have struggled some with sitting back and saying.
I'm between surviving.
And I'm somewhere between surviving and death, but I can seldom get myself to feel like I'm fully thriving. So why does God have me in this, in this in this area between life and death where I'm really, I don't feel like I'm doing well physically. And what am I getting done? And are the results that I'm getting done and the things I'm achieving that I have desires for that would have?
00:20:23
Value. Are they really happening? Am I making a big enough difference in all of those things? Well, you notice what's happening in that conversation with myself. It's about me. Again, that's the underlying problem with those types of questions and those types of arguments, and that's the beauty of.
God and His kindness showing me that His purposes for our lives may be more directly connected to being than they are to doing. Because while I may not believe that I'm achieving the things that I think would be important or would even be eternally beneficial or valuable. Maybe some of the things that I'm not even aware of. Maybe talking to the man who is so agitated and telling him that God has a purpose for my life.
Maybe that's one little thing in that man's life that will he will remember. And maybe later on, that's the last conversation I had with him. He got off the plane and the way he responded to me, it was as if he just had mad respect for someone who had a purpose and he wished me well and took off. But that little conversation, while it seems like so insignificant to us, may in fact be something that God uses. And it's not my responsibility to keep track of that or grade that.
Figure out, did that make a difference in that man's life? That's the Lord's business. And if we are faithful in these little things, He will continue to show us. And I'll close with this example. We don't have to turn to it, but in Genesis.
The children of Israel are, I'm sorry, in Exodus, the children of Israel are leaving Egypt and Pharaoh last minute says I'm going to pursue them and they know that Pharaoh is in pursuit. Moses stops and he tells the people stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I'm paraphrasing. He tells them to stop and I believe that he was functioning in faith, but we usually stop reading at those verses. But if we continue to read, the Lord tells Moses.
In my paraphrasing, why are you standing here? You need to get moving.
And he tells Moses directly how to cross the Red Sea. And the waters were parted and they moved. So how as young people, how as adults, do we know when we should stop or slow down in faith? And how do we know when God is telling us to move forward? And my, I don't have any magic formula for your life decisions. There is no magic formula for your life decisions. But as you seek Him and you have faith in what is happening.
That you have faith that what is happening is ordered by Him and His plan for you is perfect.
And I would encourage you to ask him for wisdom if you're confused or you're unsure of a decision, it may be wise to hold back. But conversely, when you know you need to go forward, move forward promptly, quickly. Do not wait. And one last word of advice about practical things is sometimes we think, well, we're not making enough happen and this job is not enjoyable enough. To me, this is not fulfilling. This is not the track I want to be on. I really want to do this because.
This would be more enjoyable or this would be better for me?
Those things might all be true.
But if it's God's mind for you to do things like that, He will open the door and the timing might be right. You might need some time in the wilderness. Maybe there's some time to learn some lessons before you go to the next thing that you think is so much more intriguing than what you're working on. Work on listening for God's timing and His counsels and the things, plans, and ideas He has for you. Let's close.
Our God and our Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your faithfulness to us. We're thankful that we can come at any time and ask for wisdom.
And the practical and daily matters and decisions of life we give thanks to for this refresh, these refreshments, we ask a blessing. And for every soul, every young person in this room, we just ask for a special blessing. We're thankful and we pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.