My subject this afternoon is making the most of your youth. What I'd like to do first of all is ask you, what are some additional words that we could substitute for the word most? What are some words you can think of? Yes. Best. Let's just go with one word, best. Yes? Productive? How would you put that in a superlative kind of word? Productive? I'm just going to do that. Yes. Invincible. Invincible Lester. Well, I'm trying to surprise you. OK. Nice. Greatest. I knew he was going to say that. Gross. Greatest. Greatest. They don't have to have the answer. Foolest. Foolest. Maximize. Maximize. Maximize. One more I'm thinking about. It's usually in front of sports. Screen. OK. Good words. The word I'm going to use, if you can pick any one, is this word, maximize. So how to maximize your youth. Now, how many of you play sports? Right now, you're actively engaged in some kind of sports. Raise your hand high. How many of you have been on some kind of championship team, some kind of team that really excelled? Okay. How many of you won a championship that was real local, like just in a little community? How many of you in sort of like maybe a statewide? How many of you kind of in a regional, kind of get bigger than that? Okay, let me start with you. What's your sport? What did you win? What was the team victory? Okay, so tell me, and I forgot your name, I'm sorry. Tyler. Tell me, Tyler, what you did or what your team did to maximize your potential to get there. Just some of the things you did. Yeah, yeah. Through the season, of course. Dedication? How did that play itself out? What do you do? Practice every day. What else? Now you look like you sort of... Weightlifting. Okay, I had to help him on it. What else? Conditioning. Okay. Anybody do any camps in the summer along the way? Maybe training experts, pitching coaches? All those things in order to maximize his potential and everybody on the team to accomplish a goal. Who else had their hand up? Seth, what was your sport? What did you guys do? Probably similar, but was there anything different than he said? About the same thing. Anybody else? Anything you did differently in addition to that? Okay, we understand what it means to maximize a sport. What about education? What are you guys doing to maximize, we hope, your education? Study. Tutors testing. Accountability to parents and teachers, if your parents are the teachers you're trying to maximize or get the most out of your education, and of course, you want to excel or do the very best you can in education. Okay, when we think about maximizing youth, the first thing we have to do, and I'm going to take my text from Ecclesiastes 11 and 12, the first thing we have to start doing as young people, or you have to start doing, is asking a different set of questions. Okay, the athlete doesn't always ask the coach, really, what's wrong with swimming on game day? I mean, that was the thing I always heard playing baseball. or any sport, you don't swim on game day. And being the kind of stubborn person I was, I thought, what could be wrong with that? So I swam one time. Of course, I didn't know at that age, I was pretty young, that you work every single muscle in your body when you're swimming, and I was exhausted. And so I didn't maximize the game that night, and my performance was very low. So those are not the kind of questions that an athlete would be expected to ask if he's thinking right. There's nothing wrong with swimming. You could swim and be OK. The question we should be asking in our youth is, will this maximize my potential in the kingdom of God? Not just is this something I can do for the Lewis talking about music, can't tell you how many times young people come to me and say, you see anything wrong with this? It's like, you know. What if they start asking themselves, is this going to help me in my walk with Christ? Is it going to help me help maximize my youth? Is it in any way going to numb me spiritually? Is it in any way going to affect my participation in the kingdom of God where I am? You see, if we ask just the questions, is anything wrong with doing this when maybe the answer could be, well, there's nothing particularly wrong with it. We should be thinking in terms of the glory of God and what God has created us to do and to be. So I want to read in Ecclesiastes 11, beginning in verse nine. Rejoice. O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk of the ways of thine heart in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore, remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. While the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Now, the first thing we need to remember is that we've been created for the glory of God. There's a reason why Solomon uses the word creator. As opposed to perhaps other words he could have used about God, it gets back to what Brother Lewis was saying, you don't have a soul. You are a soul with a body. God created your soul and your body. And Paul said we're to glorify God both in soul and body. And so to remember your creator now and to maximize your youth. Is to remember the purpose. That God created. Your soul now in Chapter 12, as Brother Zack pointed out, Solomon is going to give some very disturbing things about old age. And I'm not going to go through them all, but he talks about the memory fading, which Brother Zach obviously defies that one. But when the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened, when you can't remember things like you once could, when your hands begin to tremble and your legs become weak. I admit last night when everybody was gone and the men, young men, were lining up. Should I tell this, Isaac? lining up chairs to see how many they could fly over and land on their feet. It's pretty impressive. I must admit, for just a moment in my mind, I had kicked off my shoes. My socks were off. They were barefooted. I was at the front of the line and I was already assessing how fast I would have to run to lift off to jump over those chairs. But then I remembered a text like this and my own experience, because every time I've been my knees actually pop cracking like Rice Krispies when you put milk on my back is not what it used to be. And that would have been the worst disaster. And there would have been a 9-1-1 call had I tried to do what in my mind for a split second, I really thought I could and wanted to do. Those men were rejoicing in their youth. But Solomon wants us to remember that when we think about something that's coming in the future, he's saying that should have impact on you now. The body gets weak, the hands tremble, the eyes can't see, the almond tree blossoms, gray head, if you have hair. All the parts of the body begin to break down. And then Solomon concludes in verse seven of chapter 12, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return and the God who gave it. Now, it may seem like Solomon saying, look, you've seen old people, you see how they're afraid to walk. They don't want to drive at night. And when they get very old, it's hard to get up. It's hard to sit down. It's hard to do everything because you become stiff. So what you need to do is get as much pleasure out of your life that you can right now, because Solomon says the days are coming when desire fades, pleasure fades and you can't even eat foods that you want like because the digestion doesn't cooperate. Heard an old grandpa or grandmother say that? Or a mom and a dad say, I just can't eat those foods anymore. They don't agree with my stomach. They're saying is the body's getting old and it doesn't respond as well as it used to. Just the simple desires of life. Food. Begins to become challenging. So Solomon's saying, look, get as much out of your life now. Maximize it because the time will get when you become old and you can't. That's exactly what he's saying. And that's exactly not what he's saying. And let me explain. Solomon is saying, first of all, twice in chapter 11 that I read in chapter 12 and verse 13 or 14, rather, for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. The young man in verse nine of chapter 11 that lives according to his own heart and his own heart's desire. and the way he sees it in life. Living and doing what is right in his own eyes, because Jesus is the light of the body is the eye, and he connects the eye with the treasure of the heart in Matthew, chapter six. So what's on the saying, if we live completely and fully as we see it in life and as our own heart wants to live and judgments coming? Because why is it that God is going to judge the wicked? It's for that very reason, isn't it? How would you describe the world and wickedness? It's where people live according to their own way of life, their own pleasures and the way they see it. And God is going to bring them into judgment. Now, I want to tell you that the judgment of God is not to be a threat to the person that loves Jesus Christ, but a guide to your joy. a guide to your joy. We don't want to live like the wicked according to their own hearts, desires and the way they see it. We want to live according to God's glory and the way he sees it and where his heart is. And that's, in fact, where his heart is, his glory. That's why he created the souls of men. But if you even go back to the garden itself, you see the Eve. was tempted on the basis of the way she saw it, because she saw the food, the fruit of the tree, and she saw that it was pleasant to the eyes. And desire to make one wants the heart, desired what the eyes saw, and she took it. And now everyone that comes into the world, their souls and their understanding has been darkened And all of us by nature live according to our heart's desires, our own way and the way we see it until God gives us a new heart and a new set of eyes. So we must understand early in age that God created man for his glory. And yes, Adam fell in the garden and we fell with him. But now through Jesus Christ, God is creating a new people and he's gathering them into churches. That we might live even in youth for the glory of God. Now, what are some of the ways that you may think that we could maximize God's glory? How would that work out in your life? Anybody have any suggestions? Raise your hand. Yes, sir. Sharing the gospel with others. OK, yes. Being active in your church, what's another way? Yes. Reading the Bible. What's another way? Obedience. What's another way? Helping older people, people that are in the condition of Ecclesiastes 12. I qualify for some of those, so I could use your help. A couple more. I'm sorry, keeping his commandments. Anything else? Encouraging one of them. Now, what I want to tell you, the first thing to maximize God's glory is none of those. And when I say none of those, I mean none of them. I like shock people. Now, the person that got the very closest to it was the one that talked about the gospel. The first thing you need to do to maximize God's glory in your youth is simply look at something. And if you don't look at this and you don't see it, then Solomon says even your youth is vanity. Now, our culture doesn't think that way. Culture doesn't say youth is vanity. They say youth is everything. Advertisements are about youth. Everything is an appeal to youth. Even old people think, I wish I was young again. But Solomon says in the last verse of chapter 11, for childhood and youth are vanity, vexation, grasping for the wind unless you've seen something. Before you ever keep a commandment. Before you ever encourage anybody. Before you ever share anything, you must see something. And Solomon calls him the one shepherd in chapter 12, the Jesus Christ, the Lord. Because unless you see him and unless you know him and unless you trust him, all of your obedience is no better than the Luke 18 Pharisee that says, I thank you, God, that I'm not like this other man, the publican. Or it's like the rich young ruler that says, I've kept that from all my youth up. And who am I to say he had never killed anybody or he had killed somebody? Who am I to say he committed adultery? He said he hadn't. Who am I to say he stole it? There is nothing there that would tell us he's anything other than what he said he was. Or the Luke 15 brother that said, I've kept all these commandments for you, father. And the father in the parable of the prodigal sons never contradicted him. He never said you're a liar. In fact, he was keeping commands, but he lacked one thing he had never seen. The one shepherd. So none of your obedience has any value to God. Unless it's centered in the Lord Jesus Christ, because the way we maximize the glory of God is go to the glory of God in Jesus Christ. So I think it's incumbent upon me to talk about the shepherd first, because we don't even get the first base without talking about. The shepherd. Jesus Christ. Now, give me some images of what you think of or words when we say the word shepherd and this where I'm referring to is verse 11 of chapter 12, the words of the wise are as goads and nails fastened by the masters of assemblies which are given from one shepherd. What are some images of a shepherd? What do you think about? Yes. Staff, OK, there's the image of a shepherd. Tell me something about what he does. Protects the sheep, protects that's one. What's another one? Yes, feeds them. What's another one? Yes, guides them. What's another one? Yes. Leads them, guides them, feeds them, carries them, protects them. I'm sorry, loves them. All these are true, right? Calls them by name. All of these are true about a shepherd. And when you start to look at what when Jesus is referred to as a shepherd in the Bible, he's the chief shepherd, the good shepherd, the great shepherd. In Isaiah 40, he's the shepherd that will carry the young in his bosom. He will carry them. He's the shepherd of Psalm 23 that when Jesus or David rather refers to him, he says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not what? What does that mean? I can't I'm sorry, I'm look, I'm an Ecclesiastes 12 man, the music has grown low, I can't hear you speak up. Yes, I didn't mean to sound harsh. Lewis is the straight talker. I'm sort of the gentle guy. Go ahead. Lack. I don't lack anything. Now, can you say that right now? No, I really can't. I don't have an iPhone. My friends do. I don't have an iPad. I don't have an i-whatever. But if Jesus is your shepherd, David says you don't lack anything. For what? Anything for what? Now, I'm just can't understand what you think for Christ's sake. Yeah, you don't like anything for Christ's sake and you don't like anything. For what? For. What are you after? Why does a young man need to rejoice? What is he pursuing? What does he want? What do you want out of life? Happiness, as Brother Isaac said. If Jesus is your shepherd, then you lack nothing. For spiritual joy and spiritual happiness, because that's what the shepherd is to be to us. So even Solomon wants to point to the one shepherd, because, as Isaac said, without him, all is truly vanity. Yes, but with him, the son and I, I tend to think the reason whoever named the son, the son just used two different letters. Because the sun is bright and it shines and it makes us warm and it makes us happy. I'm happy when I walk out and the sun is shining on me. The S-O-N sun is the sun Jesus Christ. That when we look at him by faith, we find in him all that we need for the soul. The soul that's been created to do something, glorify God. And without him, without being united to him, without an experience with the man, Jesus Christ, anything you do on the outside, is no good to God. And so I encourage you today to think about him, look at him, everything that's been said. And these men have alluded to Jesus Christ, they know accountability would be great, but if you don't have Christ, it's just motivated, rooted in something else. All that we've said is of no value without Jesus Christ. Salvation begins by looking, Isaiah 45, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. That's God's word through Isaiah, salvation continues by looking, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith and salvation is completed by looking at the one who saved you. Our conversation is from heaven from whence we look for the Savior to appear. Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, Jesus Christ died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. And so he created the souls of his people so that we may see Christ, trust him. And live for God's glory, and so unless we turn to the one true shepherd, then everything we say, as Solomon says, is vanity, even in childhood. So I encourage you to look. If you can even say, I'm just not even sure what faith means. Look at the Gospel of John and just look at it again and again. Perhaps God will show you who he is. Open your eyes to the glory of Jesus Christ. God created your soul, as the old catechism says. And I'm not sure which one says it, but he created our souls to glorify him and enjoy him forever. What is that from? One of the caches, one of the confessions, but if he created the soul to glorify him and enjoy him forever, we must think of forever, not at the end, but now. So I'd like to just change that and tweak it a bit. God created the souls of his people to glorify him by enjoying him now and forever. And that's Solomon's point, isn't it? Because he says, look, don't do like me. The ritual wise man. Who did everything his heart and his eyes wanted. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter two. Now. Solomon is not trying to trick us as if a dad would say to his son, just go ahead and do that. Live like that. You see what's going to happen to you. Oh, he's encouraging us not to live that way by his own experience. So at the end of where Brother Isaac was reading to us yesterday, verse 10 of chapter two, he says, And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy. So his eyes communicated to his soul or maybe his soul was communicating through his eyes what he desired and wanted. He had the resources to get it. He had the wisdom to get it. He had the money to get it. He had the power to get it. And no one could stop him. And he got it. And he's saying to you, young person, right now, listen. I'm not quite as bold as Lewis, but don't be stupid. You can't even try to do what I've done, you will never have the money I have. You will never have the wisdom he had unless it's in Christ. So don't be a fool. Don't buy it. It won't work. And much of Ecclesiastes, I think, is his lamentation and his sorrow over his previous idolatry. And so, young man, rejoice in your youth, rejoice in the shepherd and use your youth. And that's just a masculine way of saying young man and young woman. For the glory of God and maximize his glory now by the pursuit of God's glory. In a way that the soul. Is enjoying the shepherd. Now, if you had someone in this world, a father that fed you everything you could possibly need. That was your strength. That protected you, that guided you, that led you. The only reason you would turn away from that man is if you thought you were a more reliable guide to your joy than that man. And that's the problem in Adam and Eve. They thought, you know, does God really know what would make me happy? Does this man or this God that created me really know what the soul needs to make itself happy? I don't think he does. Now you see why pride is so hated by God. It's looking God in the face and saying, God, you don't know what makes me happy. You can't even fathom what makes me happy. I don't even want you to tell me what makes me happy. I'll do it my way as my heart thinks about it and as my heart desires it and the way I see it. And tell me, raise your hand if you've never thought like that or you haven't even lived that way at all. Don't be a liar. That's what sin is. But when we look at the shepherd, now we've got the right focus. We can see spiritually the God-man that loved us and we trust him as a reliable guide to our joy. Yes, in the valley, when it hurts, we say Jesus knows because the valley is the pathway to the mountaintop where the pastures are green and the still waters are flowing. The devil will try to lure you into thinking you really can do better. You know, you don't need parents to tell you anything. You don't need God's way. You don't need God to shepherd you. Listen to Solomon, young people, and see and hear his lamentation and his counsel to us. Jesus is spoken of as the shepherd in Isaiah 40 and is the one we look to in Isaiah 53. Notice the reason for the root of sin in Isaiah 53-6. We all like sheep have gone astray. Isaiah says that means we've turned each to our own way. Now, watch this. The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of your way on him. What is your way? It's the way of pleasure. It's the way of you doing it the way you want to. It's the way of you seeking joy the way you want to. Jesus died and took the hit for what you love. Because he's always loved you. That's amazing. That's why repentance has to get down to the root of the heart. John the Baptist says the axe is laid to the root of the tree, not the trunk of the tree. You've got to go deep and say, what is my greatest treasure? And if it's not Christ, turn again and again from it. The good news, young man and young woman. Is that Jesus died so that his righteousness would be yours. Because he loved God completely every way in which you fail to love God. He has loved him. And he took the penalty for what you loved and treasured. And so when we see the shepherd. What we experience by faith, if that's what God has granted, is that we see the man who loved in our state and took the hit. for all the idols that I've loved and thought they would bring me joy and happiness. And when you can see that young in life, now you're ready to maximize the glory of God. Now you're ready to struggle against all of the worldly views and what the devil will try to tempt you again and again to thinking, do you really think the shepherd knows? Do you really think his death is going to get that for you? Do you really think he died to purchase for you the good hand of God in your life for the rest of your life? That's what he did. And so to see him is then to have no fear of judgment, but to be a guide to your joy as you live. And what I'd like to do, then, is look at a couple of ways. And Brother Zack's presentation, I think, is kind of overlapping this to make most of your time and your use. I want to look at a couple of things that he mentioned as we see them in Ecclesiastes 10 and 11. So the first thing in remembering that God created you to give him glory is to remember that he created you to work. He created you to work. Now, sometimes that's depressing for young people, because in a society like ours, we would like to do everything but work. But that's what God created us to do. So look at Ecclesiastes 10, beginning in verse 16. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness. By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. Verse 20. Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. All right, Solomon is talking about a good government, a bad government, a good king and a bad king. He says, don't curse the king for the rich. Oh, how relevant the Bible is. What two things we hear people cursing the government and the rich people, the business owners, and God says, don't do it, don't do it. I don't think he means if government is not fulfilling the God given mandate that we say you're not fulfilling it, according to the Bible, this is not right. Your actions are not right. You shouldn't do that. But just to criticize and curse and you can do that without using the four letter words, we call it and just to curse the rich people as if. You know, they should give all the way their money to me because I don't want to work, God says, don't do that. And so Solomon says this, if you have a bad king, that is a woe to the land. Verse 16, when he's like a child, immature, the princes eat in the morning. Now, the princes were not supposed to go for self gratification in the morning. They were supposed to do the business of the kingdom. And then they were to eat and do season. Verse 17, I princes eat and do season for strength and not for drunkenness. They weren't just self indulgent. and forgetting about the people they were governing. A child isn't mature. A child is that kind of toddler that will put anything in its mouth because all they want is something to go down to the belly to gratify the physical desire because they just don't understand. So you show a nice shiny knife to a toddler and give it to him. What's he do? It goes down. Everything does. So a bad government has no self-control and they're self-indulgent. A good government, a good king is the son of nobles. They eat in due season and they do it for strength, which just means it doesn't mean they don't enjoy their food, but it means they're not overindulging in the position that they're in. Now, I think Solomon's going to say whether you've got a good king or bad king. Society, first of all, is stable when there's no slothfulness and idleness of the hands. Even in society, what happens, the building starts to decay and the house starts to leak. Now, I've told the illustration before that I think my house is starting to decay and I do have leaks in my roof. And the way I fix a leak in my roof is I just look at it and look at it and somehow it goes away. And I've discovered that's because eventually it stops raining. I think it's fixed, but it's not. And then it comes back. So where did that leak come from? And my wife said, well, that's the leak you never fixed. But for a Christian, it's not just about keeping society together, certainly when the Christian is salt and light, it has an impact on society. But the Christians have a work ethic that maximizes the glory of God. And so when we go into the workplace, young man, or when we have the business of cutting yards in the youth or whatever you may be doing at home, it doesn't have to be in society to be in the home, your work ethic and what you do is to take the glory of God with you. Now, I want to turn to Colossians three to see how we might do that. Colossians 3, verse 17. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Verse 23. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Now there he's speaking specifically of servants, which would be slaves in the Roman Empire. Ministers apply that to the employer employee relationship, so says it be obedient in all things. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God and whatsoever you do, do it heartily. It's compound word that means out of the soul. Now, if your soul has been created for the glory of God and the way you glorify God is by enjoying him now and forever, then what should be coming out of your soul in your work? Yes, joy, right. Joy, not fun. You could have a difficult place in the work workforce, not kicking up your heels and saying, well, I'm so happy, a joy that's in the soul that keeps you moving as a slave. And Paul never condoned slavery, but he was telling slaves in a difficult spot. what God created them for, their souls, and what they were to be about in a very challenging situation. Out of the soul, heartily unto the Lord, not as a men pleaser. Now the word men pleaser means sight labor or eye service means sight labor. Men pleaser means man quarter. Man quarter. Let's talk about a young lady quarter for a minute. Some of you young men started courting a lady and you became a lady quarter, you might do some sight labor kind of things. You might look all good on the outside. You may do your best to show your best side and hide all those weaknesses and things you would never want anybody to know because, you know, you would want to impress her with eye service as a men pleaser. I'm not suggesting that you're this kind of person, but, you know, it's possible. And so Paul says, rather than being a site labor kind of person where you're just doing things on the outside with the body, like Lewis said, rather be a God pleaser out of the soul. So there are three ways in doing it in the name of Christ out of verse 17 that your work ethic can glorify God. First, if you're doing it in his name, you're consciously trusting that name. You're trusting it. Now, tell me how you know you're trusting Jesus Christ in any context. We're talking about not being idle, not being slothful, but working as a Christian in a society. How would you know you're trusting in the name of Jesus? Obeying, how do you know you're obeying him? The Bible, the word of God, a promise. a promise. So brothers, I said, memorize the Bible. And so the point is, you can apply that word wherever you are. You're trusting Jesus Christ when you're consciously applying a promise to your life. In a good situation or difficult situation, when you've got a bad boss or a good boss, a bad king or good king, a bad government or a good government, because you're recognizing the God over government and the God over the boss, Peter says, whether you have a forward boss or a gentle boss, a despot boss, Submit. Submit, because this is acceptable with God. God is pleased when you submit to a froward boss and you don't criticize him and gossip about him because of out of the soul, God is the one that you treasure. God and his promises are the ones you're leaning upon. God and his son is the one you're trusting in. And so out of a soul that is trusting in the name of Jesus through the promises of God, your work will be distinctively different than people that don't trust him. Number two, give thanks in the name of Jesus Christ. And you say that sounds like such a simple thing, but it's a big thing. People in our culture don't give thanks. They give criticism. Thanks, Paul says in the same epistle that you can guard your heart with Thanksgiving. You just read that. Verse six of chapter two, as you have received Christ Jesus Lord, so walk in him rooted, built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with Thanksgiving, overflowing with Thanksgiving. Now, if you are thanking someone all the time, what is the presupposition about your relationship with that person? You say it again, think about it. Now, I can wait as long as you need to for you to answer what I'm saying. I know it's. You've eaten, let me say it again, you're going to answer, Seth. All right. You made me forget, Seth, what did I say? Yes. So if you have a relationship with someone that you're thanking all the time, Seth, all you're ever doing is thanking him, thanking him, thanking what's the presupposition that relationship. Right, he's giving you something, doing something all the time. Now, if you really are thankful, Seth, not like you thank your dad for the socks on birthday, not like that, but if you really out of the soul are thanking that person, The presupposition, again, is that you're having joy over what the person's doing. When you guard your heart with thanksgiving because of your relationship with Jesus Christ, you rooted up, rooted, built up in him, and that relationship is growing. And you're having joy in it. What could the devil offer you? To pull you away from something so joyful. Now, it'd be easier to lure Seth away from the socks. Seth would rather have this iPad or your socks. I'll take the iPad. But if you're content with the one who's so supplying everything you need, then you're guarding your heart with thanksgiving. You see, beloved, the reason our culture doesn't give thanks because they have no joy of the soul. They are miserable. They are dissatisfied with government, with authorities, with the rich, with business and with everybody. And it's manifesting itself in people your age. It's called the entitlement mentality. You're not giving me this. You're not giving me that. You're not giving me the good job. You're taking away my education. Suppose that you look to God for everything you need. Then your life would be like a watered garden, Jeremiah says. You're taking in the water of God and you're thanking him and then out of your heart is flowing rivers of water to other people. You would be a distinctively different young person in any context. If you're thanking God from the heart and then lastly. Not only to thank him. Not only to consciously trust in him, but to be deliberate about making that name known. One of the young men said to share Jesus with others. To make that name known that just that lifestyle would make him known, but then the opportunity to make him known on the sports team. Two people who are your friends. Making the name known. That you treasure and it means so much to you. So Solomon says the way you rejoice in your youth and maximize your youth is you have your heart and your eyes fixed upon the one shepherd, then out of that relationship as it ebbs and flows and grows, then your work. And that's just any kind of work, whether you're making your bed or cooking, as Brother Zach suggested, or fixing the faucet, all those things is coming out of a heart, not just saying, Dad, can you get somebody else to do this? Complaining about it. A rolling the eyes, there is a generation. Oh, how lofty are their eyes. That means don't do that. That's proud. So your eyes are telling what's in the heart. You don't roll the eyes by saying, boy, I'm so glad to do this. You roll them out of pride against the person you're rolling them at. And that's what's in the heart. That's what the Bible says. I wouldn't know that. So don't be a generation that has lofty eyes, be a generation that's humble. And that is working, as in the Lord, it was Solomon that said, whatsoever your hand finds to do it mightily, as in the Lord, because there is no device, knowledge, wisdom in the grave where you're going. You can't work there. To time to give God glory will be over then you won't know anything or learn anything there, and there's no wisdom when your body's lying in the grave. Remember now your creator in the days of your youth and maximize his glory. And then the next one is found in Ecclesiastes 11, maximize your youth by being a giver. And I'm taking a broad context there. Monetarily, with your life, with your resources, use your youth now to remember God, the one that created your soul, to glorify him by being a giver. Now, again, referring to the young men jumping. But we got video that jumping the chairs last night. Their strength. Was apparent. I mean, to be able to do that, there was some strength there, you know, that God says to love him with that strength. All your strength, all your might, with all your mind. All your heart. to harness some of that strength that God gave you to use in the context of work and the things we're doing in life for his glory now. It's what I pray in this younger generation. All right, look at Chapter 11, cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. Solomon's talking in Proverbs about giving. Cast your bread upon the water. That seems like such a waste to throw bread on the waters. But Solomon says it'll come back in some way. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that if you throw one hundred dollars in the water, God's going to give you one hundred one. There's some people that preach that. But when you cast bread on the waters, it'll come back in a way that glorifies God that you could have never imagined. Casting your bread in the kingdom of God, casting your resources and your time will plant seeds that'll Come back, God says, that will not be returning to him void. So don't be afraid to cast your waters or bread rather at a young age. Sometimes young people say, you know, at the right time, I'll start giving when it comes to money. Well, if you have an income of any kind, income means it comes in to your hands. I don't care if it's once a year at the special day in your life and dad says, here's some money, you just got income, take a percentage and give it. OK, you've got to start doing that. Why? Well, because Ripley is really bad. They need some money really bad. No, that's just a plug for Isaac. That's not the issue. Your soul is relating to money at a young age. You've already formed ideas about money and what money can do to you and for you. We know that, right? We know we don't really find enjoyment out of this paper, this green and has these numbers on it or coins. People find joy in what money is perceived to do for them. That's why Paul said the love of money is the root of all evil, all kinds of evil, which some having coveted after have pierced themselves with many souls that drown men in perdition and sorrow in destruction. Money doesn't do that. What does it? Did you hear the word covetousness? Which again gets to the heart and the eyes. No man can serve two masters. He will hate the one, love the other, hold to the one, despise the other. You cannot serve God and man. The heart and what the heart treasures will determine who you do service to. If you treasure money, he's your master. If you treasure God, he's your master. What are you seeking from money? What do people seek for money? Happiness. Then what should you be seeking from God as your master? In the soul, we have to qualify that. You may think I've been seeking happiness and it's not coming. I don't have the money and I don't have the marriage yet and I don't have everything I think would bring me happiness. No, it's the shepherd. It's the shepherd. It's him. So cast your bread upon the waters, give widely, as Zach said, give a portion of seven also to eight. But I gave it the office. Well, no, go beyond the office. No, you don't work in an office yet, but do it widely. You don't know what evil shall be upon the earth, but God does, and he may use your resources, your time, your efforts to avert some evil because he works through means providentially. So you don't know what's going to happen with it, but do it widely, have a broader scope, Solomon says. And then verse three, and this is the one I want to work with a few minutes here. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth. And if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. Now, what Solomon's saying in verse three is give out of fullness, not emptiness. What happens if the cloud is full of rain? It empties itself on the earth. What happens if the cloud is empty? Nothing happens. There's no water. There's no rain. There's nothing coming out of the clouds dropping for the benefit of people and the earth. The imagery is very vivid. If we're like clouds full of something. Then we're ready to empty in our giving, whether we have much to give or little to give in terms of money, whether it's a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus Christ, he will not forget your labor when it's done in his name. Or whether it's just your time or your encouragement, as you said, or your obedience out of love for Christ, whatever it is, it must come out of a fullness rather than an emptiness. Now, Jude and Peter will talk about clouds and a well that give the appearance of fullness when they're really not. He would talk about false teachers that would say they're clouds without water, wells without water. Now, if you were in the middle of a desert and you were about to die of thirst and you saw this well and it wasn't a mirage, it was really there, what would your expectation be? Water. There's water there. And you ran with all the strength you had and you started cranking the rope. You pull it up. It was just a big bucket of sand. What a disappointment. The people that Peter and Jude are talking about, they talk about great swelling words of vanity, but they can't deliver because they're empty clouds. They're empty of the one true shepherd. If you're full of the one that's called fullness, if you're being filled with all the fullness of the Godhead, Ephesians three, if you're being filled with the knowledge of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, you've got something now to empty. And it may not just be money. And if it is money, it's coming out of that joyful relationship with the one that John says, out of his fullness, we've all received grace for grace. So be full of the scriptures, as you have heard, be filled with the spirit, but don't be drunk with wine wherein is excess. Why do people get drunk with wine to the excess? Why is it you may have heard of such thing as a happy hour. Why is there such a thing as happy hour where they want to reduce the price of alcohol? I just told you, didn't I? What? Happy. Why do people drink in excess? They are seeking happiness. Therefore, the opposite is to be filled with the spirit by finding your joy in something the spirit is leading you to, the shepherd. And that comes with being full of the word, full of prayer, full of the Holy Spirit. So give out of a fullness, because God, he's not pleased with a grudgingly. He's not pleased we give of necessity. He loves a cheerful giver. You may say, what do I have to be cheerful about in my youth? What things have gone bad in my life? You don't know what's in my life. What do I have to really be cheerful about? The shepherd who died. Do you see the shepherd? And then notice this, the tree falls toward the south or toward the north in the place where the tree fall there, it shall be. Now, there are many reasons a tree may fall to the north and south, if someone knows how to cut a tree down, for which I don't to make it fall exactly where I want a good lumberjack, a good man that knows how to cut a tree down can make it. I've seen a Macomb tree fall just exactly once. But there's a primary reason a tree falls to the north and south, and that's the providence of God. Just like God cares where the sparrow falls, for some reason he cares where the tree falls, because he's over everything. Where the tree falls in God's providence, there it stays. Where you are right now in God's providence, where he's planted you, there blossom. There blossom. I'm seeing more and more among young people a discontentment in the place where God has planted them. If I lived in that state, if I was in that school, if I had that place to be, if I was where they are, if I could go to another country and they're discontent with the place that God has planted them in his providence and rather than maximizing your youth, you're wasting it, you're wasting it. And you look back and think, why was I not serving God right there in that small little country church where there wasn't anybody around for miles? I don't think that fits that context. But, you know, we may think that's a case where, you know, if a young person full of zeal might like to be in a bigger city, like to be in a different location, serve God now where you are. The tree has fallen, he has planted and it's provident you're where you are and there are all kinds of secondary reasons as to where you are, but primarily God is over it all. So blossom where he's planted you the best. Instruction on this reality is 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Where Paul is essentially saying the same thing Solomon. Does. Turn there with me. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 17, but as God has distributed to every man, as the Lord had called everyone, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches. The word distributed means appointed, assigned. As God has assigned every man, let him walk. And what he's going to mean is the context of where God has assigned him. Verse 20, let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Are thou called being a servant? Care not for it. Don't be anxious about it. Again, Paul's not saying it's good to be a slave. It's human slavery in the Roman Empire. Many, many slaves. Has God called you and brought you out of the darkness into his light in the context of slavery? He assigned you in his providence. That's where you are. And that's where he called you. What should you do? Don't care for it. Don't be anxious. Now, if you can be made free, use it. For what? The glory of God. Now, if you're going to use your freedom for the glory of God, what should you use your slavery for? The glory of God. Now, the servant, you can imagine, what do you think the thought of the slave would be, having been converted to Christianity in the Roman Empire? What do you think the one thought he wants now? We're free in Jesus. Especially if his master is a Christian, he's thinking, man, you shouldn't be lording it over me. Let me go. Paul dealt with that first in chapter six. What do you think the attitude of a slave that was a Christian could be that Paul's addressing? Dissatisfaction and discontentment with where he is. Now, look what Paul says, verse 22, he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's freeman. Also. He that is called being free is Christ's slave. He are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men. Don't be enslaved to men, be enslaved to God. Now, here's the text, verse 24. Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein live, abide, dwell, continue with God. What will take care of a slave's discontentment in a difficult situation where anyone would want to be free? Dwell with God. Be content with God. Rest in God. Rest in his providence. Love God. Rejoice, oh, young man, with God in your youth. Live with God, oh, young lady, in your youth. Are you called being a young person? In a difficult situation, live with God in that calling, are you called and now you're unmarried when you really wish you could be. I know I'm not speaking totally that at that age. It may be you may find that all of these people in this room are getting married and you are the only one that seems like at 26 it's not married. What should you do? Be content and live with God and maximize your singleness for the glory of God. It may be that people seem like they're going to college and doing all kinds of things and you're not. What should you do? Live with God and be content. Abide with God. I know there's a lot of pressure on you from the world. To make you think you are just not getting to do the things that people really get to do to enjoy life. But when you see the shepherd and you recognize people in the world that, quote, are living it up, have never seen the shepherd, they don't know the shepherd. And really, you should pity them. If you know him, keep your eyes on him and keep looking to him and live with God in the context of where he's put you. And if you can be made free in a way that honors God, then use it. For the glory of God, if you can be married in a way that honors God, use your marriage for the glory of God. If you can remain single that honors God, use it rather. Maximize your youth and glorify God and live with him. And then finally, just to repeat what Brother Timothy said, the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments. I want to close with one text on that thought in Psalm 34. And then I've kind of gone over, I guess, here. Psalm 34. Come, you children, hearken unto me, verse 11, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. This is the most. Unusual and remarkable passage on the fear of the Lord that I have seen, here's the whole duty of man in maximizing your youth. Come, you children, hearken to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Here's the fear of the Lord. Question. What young man or young woman here is he that desires life, loveth many days that he may see good? Question mark. Who loves living? Who desires many days? Who wants to live a really short life and die? Who desires many days? OK, all right, here's the capstone here. Who loves life, desires many days that he may see good? What do you see on the bumper sticker? The what? The good, the good life. All right. Come, ye children, and listen. I'm going to teach you the fear of the Lord, David says. So he poses a question that he knows you're going to answer, just like you answered. He knows you want to live long. He knows you desire to live the good life. So here it is. Are you ready for the good life? Verse 13, you keep your tongue from evil. Your lips from speaking God. Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. That is not what I expected. Because I'm simply a human. And God is divine. What David is saying about the fear of the Lord is the way you live many good days, no matter how many they are, and that you desire life and experience the good life is in relationship with the God of heaven. So when you keep your tongue in your lips from doing something on the outside, it's because the heart is content with God on the inside, because out of the abundance of heart, the mouth, what speaks, it speaks. And so the whole duty of man is to fear God, treasure God, love God, live with God, enjoy God, know God, and then that will help your tongue. It will help you depart from evil. It will help you do good. It will help you seek peace. It will help you pursue it. Because the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.