Amen, turn your Bibles to Luke chapter all Luke chapter 15 Luke chapter 15 gonna read a few verses beginning verse 11 Luke chapter 15 You know since our young people are just small us I Mean we were young people one time weren't we? Yeah, we were. And I know it's hard sometimes for young people to believe that one time we were young people. But we were. And understanding us. But to understand us even as young people, and understand us as young people, to understand other young people, we have to go to the scripture. to get the answers do a lot of things. And well, everything really. If we want to find a word, we just go to the Bible, find out what the Bible has to say. And there are things that we can learn about ourselves, about those that are after us. You know, it seems like for the last few years, we've had a name for every generation. from the me generation to the X generation to the the millennial generation. We got all kinds of names for different generations. And yet there are eternal truths that do not change from one generation to another. Now I'll tell you the problem that we have as people is that we forget a lot about what we were really like when we were younger. Even when we're willing to admit that we weren't so good we're not really admitting exactly how bad we really were. Now every once in a while someone will come along and with a very clarity of thought be completely honest but you understand that most people, you go to the prisons today and there's a lot of people sitting in the prisons today who really think they're a lot better than most church members. I mean, even if they drink and curse and swear and beat up people and do all kinds of things, they still think that somehow they're not as bad as a lot of people that come into the church. Now, we realize that all the people that come into the church are still sinners, hopefully saved by grace. If they're not saved, then they're still lost because no matter how good or bad you were or are, salvation is still only found in Jesus Christ. I've been thinking about this story again about the prodigal son. And I think there are some lessons to learn to help us. In the passage he says, and I'm not preaching this as an exposition of the passage, simply to get us started. And it says, and he said, a certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat. And no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? And I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servant, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it. and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field. And as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted cat, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. And yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make Mary with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots. Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meat that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. Now I got to meditating on this passage. Now Jesus is telling a story. He's got a lesson here for the Jews. Of course the older son represents the Jews that were wallowing in their self-righteousness. and would reject Jesus. And they were upset, of course, that there was rejoicing over this one who had wasted his life, had gotten right with the father, and now fellowship was restored, even though his inheritance was gone, he had lost all that. And I'm thinking, all right, we got two prodigal sons here. We got a prodigal son that left home, we got a prodigal son that stayed home. Because his heart was not where the father's heart was. Now think about the story for a moment because the father in the story represents who? Represents God. Now God is the perfect father. Isn't that right? There's no fault in God. We find no fault with the father in the story and yet he has two prodigal sons. And he's the right kind of father. But I thought if you were the right kind of parent, then all your kids ought to be godly. Is God not the right kind of parent? Now there's a lot of lessons to learn about the father himself in this story, but it is an interesting thought that here the perfect father has two sons, the one who went off and lived riotously, the other one who tried to obey all the father's words, but his heart was obviously not with the father either. And so what do you expect from young people? What is it that you expect? Go through the scripture wouldn't you expect for instance Goliath's parents? to raise a Philistine I Mean when you expect that they were Philistines When you expect the last parents to raise a Philistine and they did and they raised a champion for the Philistines He was their champion. You would expect Herod for instance to raise Edomite children because he was an Edomite and He was one who was born in the line of Esau. And you would expect him to raise Edomite children. And pretty much, although not to the same degree that he did, he did that with his children. His children ended up being kings, following after the same pattern as him. You think, well, what about Christians then? Shouldn't Christians then raise children to be Christian? And to be sure, we try. But we're not always successful. Why is that? We go through scripture. We find the man that was after God's own heart, David. Man, his home was an absolute mess. Now, we don't know what happened to Chiliab. Evidently, Chiliab died. Many of the writers of the commentaries think that perhaps Chiliab died. You got Amnon. Boy, Amnon, what a washout he ended up being. He ended up raping his half-sister. What a terrible situation. Then Absalom comes along and Absalom murders Amnon. And of course, he also runs his father off the throne. This was the man, David was a man after God's own heart. You say, but boy, Solomon came along. Yeah, Solomon came along out of that illicit relationship that he never should have had in the first place. And Solomon, when he became king, started out pretty good, but somewhere along the line, as he began to multiply wives unto himself, They turned away his heart and Solomon ended up in the last part of his ministry doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Boy, David, for a man after God's own heart, sure did have trouble in his home. But we still read his Psalms, don't we? And we still get blessed by his Psalms, don't we? Now there's some lessons here that we need to get. How about Eli? Eli was the high priest, but his two sons were Hophni and Phinehas. Hophni and Phinehas, their sins were so bad that God gave a message to Samuel when Samuel was still a prophet in training in Eli's house and told to tell Eli that his sons were going to die. And sure enough, they did, as they had no respect for the house of God. But what about Nadab and Abihu? Nadab and Abihu were sons of Aaron, the high priest. But they offered strange fire on the altar of God, something that they never should have done, and God killed them for it. And God would not even let Aaron mourn for their death. Boy, now that's a tough call right there, wouldn't you say it? That's a tough call. But here's Aaron, the high priest. Of course, we also know Aaron, the high priest, is the one who made that molten calf that we preached on last week. Then you've got Samuel's children. You would have thought that Samuel would have known something, but God doesn't tell us a whole lot about his home except for the fact that the people, when they saw the children of Samuel, said, no, we need a king. We don't want to be under their leadership. We'd rather have a king and be like the other countries. Now, God does not give us any indication as to exactly what the problem was with Samuel's children, nevertheless they were. But let me go back even farther, Adam and Eve. Now, you got the first two, there's no internet. As a matter of fact, there's no evil influences to influence them. You got Cain, the ungodly line. Of course, Abel was godly, but he never did get a line because he's killed by his own brother, Cain. They both had, and then you got Seth. Now here's Cain and here's Seth, same mom and dad. You can't blame the problems on their friends. Their friends were all family. Isn't that right? There was no outside influences. There was no Hollywood. There was no rock music. There was no radio. There was no TV. Explain that one. So what are we missing about children? What do we need to get? What do we need to understand about children? What about their attitudes? I don't know about you, but I know in our home, we would have AA meetings. And I'm not talking about Alcoholics Anonymous. AA meetings in our home were attitude adjustment meetings. Now, you may have called yours somewhat different, but no doubt you had those once in a while. And sometimes our daughters, as sweet and wonderful and precious as what they were, still needed attitude adjustments. And of course, our job as parents was to take care of that. And we sought to do that to the best of our ability. But, you know, When you can't blame problems on friends, and you can't blame problems on society, and you can't blame problems on Hollywood, and you can't blame their problems on, well, you name it, right down the line. There were no bars. There were nothing like that. There wasn't a seedy side of town. There wasn't anything like that. You say, well, about the only thing we can blame is Adam and Eve. Really? You know, we need to understand some things about children. Number one. And when I say children, that would be, you know, right on through. I'm not just talking about teenagers. I'm talking about right on up and even explain us. But understand this about all young people. And they have the same enemies we have. Do you get that? They always have. They have the same enemies that we have. For instance, the devil is their enemy. As a roaring lion, he walketh about seeking whom he may devour. The devil hates them. And he especially hates the children of Christians. He may not, he can't take away your salvation. He's going to do what he can to keep that from ever getting saved though. He's going to be busy about that. And no doubt, Satan's gonna use certain things because that's not their only enemy to try to entice them away. 1 John 10 10, Jesus said to the devil, or in John 10 10, he said, the thief cometh not before to steal and to kill and to destroy, but I am come, they might have life. Never forget this truth, that there is a devil that wants to devour your children. That's what he does. He is seeking to devour you. He can't take away your salvation. And if they've gotten saved when they were young, he can't take away their salvation. So what's the next thing that he tries to devour then? Their testimony. And he's zeal for God. We have an enemy. Now thank God, greater is he that is in us than he is in the world. But that brings us to the second point. The world is their enemy as well. And the thing is, they're young, they don't even understand that. They don't get that. I think it would be interesting for you, if you wanna do a little survey, if you've got younger children, like junior age young people, to ask them this question. When God says we're not to love the world, what is he talking about? What is it that we're not to love? James 4, 4 declares the adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? And whosoever therefore be the friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's pretty strong language. I given in the Word of God first John chapter 2 He says love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man loved the world the love of the father is not in him now that's strong language, but we've we still have to deal I don't care how old you are I'm 67 you might be 70 you might be 50 55 45 35 25 Do I hear 10? I don't know 20 you get down there You have to deal with the world That world plagues every one of us. It's after our hearts. It wants to destroy our zeal. The world doesn't mind it if you say you're a believer, but they don't want you to show them up. They don't mind your children saying that they're Christians, but it doesn't want them to be different. The world puts a lot of pressure on keeping them different. Now you understand that the devil and the world are not friends of your children. They want to destroy your children. They want to take your hearts from the things of God. Then they've got another problem. It's the same problem Brother Mark's got down here. Same problem that Brother Wally's got down here. Same problem Brother Greg's got back there. They've got flesh. They're all covered with flesh. Paul says, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. Man, we've got a problem with this flesh. I hate that flesh. I hate it because of what it wants to do. Turn over for just a moment to Galatians chapter five. And in Galatians chapter five, he gives us a list. of what naturally, what naturally comes out of the flesh. Now notice, it's a number of different things, but notice beginning in verse 19, he says, now the works of the flesh are manifest. That word manifest means that they're made known. You can see it, the works of the flesh, these are things that you can see, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry Witchcraft I always thought that was interesting that witchcraft is a work of the flesh There's a lot of things we want to blame the devil for witchcraft is a work of the flesh though No doubt it pleases the devil, but it's a work of the flesh hatred Got anger problem I mean a problem where you get angry at everything. There are some things you get angry at. I don't know about you, I know when I was growing up, yeah, I had a problem with, I had a real problem with anger. Now you guys, you all got that sweet look on your face right now, like you never had a problem with that. That's what the flesh does. variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. That's all the work of the flesh. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. We don't need to go on. That's just a list of things that come from the flesh. They've got that on them. Now, here they are, other people's children. I don't care if we're talking about teenagers, junior age young people, singles, young adults, whatever. And here us adults, these young people have got, if that was the end of the enemies, that would be enough. It's not the end of their enemies, but there are things that you have to face. By the way, are you always successful against the wiles of the devil? Are you always successful against the wiles of the world? Saying no to the world. I mean, don't sometimes you feel very sorry for yourself? I need to indulge myself a little bit in this, some worldly things, get to liking the world a little bit. And are you always victorious over the flesh? Apostle Paul wasn't, according to what he said. The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. All right, you say, well, yeah, I struggle with those things. So why would you be surprised that children do? yours or others. Same problems. Now, that doesn't mean that it makes those things okay, but we should understand that a person is not worthless because they've lost the battle. Thank God he's won the war. All right, and that's what makes restoration so possible and so wonderful and something like that song we heard tonight It's under the blood. I thank God for all the things that are under the blood just out of my life And it's not just the things that I did before I got saved that are under the blood Hallelujah You said what other problems do they have They got hearts. And the Bible says in Jeremiah 17 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. So that God warns us in Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. You understand, my heart's right with God tonight. Well, if you don't keep it, it won't be tomorrow. And you've got to keep it with all diligence. Then he tells us how to do it. He says, put away from thee a froward mouth. Whoa. If I don't watch what comes out of my mouth, I'll lose my heart. So I've got to be careful. I can't just say everything's on my heart. Matter of fact, Proverbs warns us again that it is a fool that uttereth all his heart. So there are things I need. And in some cases, when I'm talking about others, I wanna be careful to not be like Job's three friends and misapply a Bible truth. And find people guilty of things they're not guilty of. Ooh, be careful what comes out of your mouth. What you say about others. There are a lot of reasons people may be having trouble and not necessarily linked to these. They may be going through a very hard time in their life. Young people. By the way, you didn't go through any traumatic things when you were young, did you? You don't have any miserable things going on, did you? They have miserable things. You say, but that's so small compared to the problems I'm dealing with. Well, wait a second. It's big to them. It's kind of like puppy love, you know. It may be puppy love, but it's real to the puppy. Isn't that right? So he says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the uses of life. And the first thing he says is, watch what comes out of your mouth. And then he says, let thine eyes look right on. You gotta be careful what you see or you'll lose your heart. And then he tells us about where we go, the path of our feet. You gotta watch where you go or you'll lose your heart. Your heart. I'm not talking about the young people's heart now. I'm talking about your heart. Well, they've gotta, if you have to keep your heart with all diligence, they have to keep their heart with all diligence. You don't always, come out on top on that one, should we be surprised that they don't either? They need help. It's one of the reasons God gave them parents, to be a help in dealing with it. You say, but you'd think they'd get it sometime. From what I can tell by the looks on your faces, you still don't get it sometimes. So why would you think they'd get it in 15 years when you've not gotten it all the time in 50 or 40 or 60 years? I mean, let's be real. We got the riding hours over here. They're getting ready to have a little baby. Now we know they're gonna be perfect parents. I mean, look at their faces. You can tell they're gonna be perfect parents. But something else I can tell. That child's got the devil as an enemy. It's going to be covered about with flesh. It's going to have the world enticing it. Think of all the things that these young people are enticed with today that we never were enticed with. I didn't have an internet I had to even worry about. I never had to worry about. Back when I was growing up, yeah, we had a TV, but they didn't show anything like what TV shows today. I mean people having their screens awfulest words, the terrible wickedness and ungodliness. We didn't have that stuff. They had, believe it or not, they had standards back then. We were spared a lot. There were things that you had to go down to a dirty bookstore somewhere and you couldn't go there if you were a young person. But they can pick it up in the home today. They can go to the library and get on a computer and see things they shouldn't see. So why would we be surprised? Considering the battle that we have and that they've got the same enemies, should we be surprised that sometimes they're not what they ought to be? Well, he said, I mean, after all, here's the father, the perfect father, and yet neither one of his boys at this time were what they ought to be. Now, the one, his life was very outwardly not what he ought to be, but the other one, his attitude was not what it ought to be. He said, preacher sounded pretty hopeless. Well, it gets better. There's also the deceitfulness of sin itself. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 13, exhort one another daily while this call today, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin deceives. Now, right now, we live in a nation, just in this auditorium, how many here are under the age of 43 years? You're under the age of 43 years. That's a lot of people. Their entire lifetime in this country, in their lifetime, every year, this country has murdered over a million babies a year. That's by abortion. That's the culture they've been brought up in. They don't know any better as far as they're culturally concerned. Their entire lifetime. I remember a day when it wasn't legal. But they've had a totally different culture they've been brought up in. I remember when I went to high school, which I said I would never say when I was in high school. Because you remember your parents saying, well, when I was in school, I'll never say that. And then you get older and you say it. when I was in school. When I was in school, the girls could only wear dresses to church. I mean to church. The girls could only wear dresses to school. They couldn't wear pants. They couldn't wear slacks. Now they wore them at home and stuff like that, but as far as during the school day. And when my wife was my girlfriend, in our senior year school. And one day we were walking down the hall side by side talking. Now this is a public school. We didn't go to a Christian school. We weren't Christians. We're walking down, a teacher came up behind us. I'm trying to think of that teacher's name. Which one was it? You know I didn't like him. That teacher came up behind us And he said, separate. We weren't touching. We were too close. We were just too close. I'm not talking about 1920s now. That's 1960s. That's the era of Woodstock. But in school there was some decorum. There were things you didn't do. Why does all this stuff seem okay today? The deceitfulness of sin. Sin deceives. It deceives people. Now, it deceives a lot of adults. So that you've got people in churches today see nothing wrong with same-sex marriage. They see nothing wrong with it. They're in church. You'd be surprised the percentage of people in Bible-believing churches, not just Baptist, but Bible-believing churches, they just think, well, if that's what they want to do, it ought to be okay. There are people in our church who think like that. Say, no way. Yeah, way. Why? How can they possibly think like that? The deceitfulness of sin. aided by the flesh, aided by a deceitful heart, aided by the world, and obviously aided by the devil as well. Do you know it's a chore just to stay straight for ourselves? So why should we be surprised when our young people struggle with things? It shouldn't surprise us, should it? Because you see, that is the reality. You say, but sometimes, man, their attitude just stinks. Sometimes our attitude stinks. So what do we do, preacher? Do we just let it go on? No, not at all. But understand something. You say, but I don't know how many times I've told them. Well, you gotta tell them again. Just like you've had to been told again and again and again, you've had to tell yourself again and again. Some of the answers are so easy. What about the influence of others? Well, who did Cain have a wrong influence from? He was one of the first, pardon me, he was one of the first homeschoolers. And he ended up being the first murderer. Think about that. He didn't even have a public school to go to. We can't blame it on the public schools on that one. But then you got Abel. He was homeschooled too, and he was obedient to God. He brought the right sacrifice to God. I know we know that Amnon was led astray by his cousin, and we can be a little bit upset with David about that. I mean, he was a king running the kingdom. But his problem was the same problem that a lot of parents have today. He trusted family. You know, it's not a matter of being careful about the neighbor's kids. I mean, this is my nephew here that's with my son and surely that would be okay. No, you need to understand something about supervision and knowing what's going on. Before there was ever a A real homeschooler, like we think of it today, or a public schooler, or a Christian schooler, children went astray. They went astray when there were none of those outside influences that we face today. Now God gives us some things to help us with that, like Deuteronomy chapter six, verses four through nine. The reality is this, let me help you. It gets down to the parents. One of the things you can do to help is you've got to guard the relationships. The main relationship they need to have is the relationship within the home. The home needs to be special. We've got a lot of things to take us out of the home and now we've even got, with all the gadgets that we have, we've got gadgets that keep us from being together even when we're all under the same roof. We all have our own cell phone. You know, it would really be good to make like a cell phone time in the house. Here's a half an hour for you to look and do all your stuff and then they're off for the rest of the night. You'd save yourself a lot of trouble. That'd be good because otherwise, I mean, you see families in the restaurant and here's mom and dad and the kids and they're all on their phone. They're in the same place together and they're not together at all. The family unit is not what it ought to be. They don't know how to react to one another. They don't know how to communicate to one another. We've got to be very careful. You've heard me say often, one of our great problems today is that we have swallowed all the technology without even considering the ramifications and what it's doing to us in our relationships with one another. So all relationships are to be guarded relationships. Too much time with outsiders without any supervision or even insiders without supervision by mom and dad can be a problem. For the young children especially, the main part of their life should be their home, not their friends. Not their friends. You know, you get older and you get some, You get responsibilities about things. Your friends can't be the main part of your life. Because you've got to take care of the things in the home, don't you? You've got things that you've got to do and take care of. I mean, life gets busy when you get a family going. And suddenly those responsibilities, it's not being a kid anymore, it gets tough. In 2 Kings chapter 22 and verse 23, The Bible speaking of Elisha says, And he went up from Thence unto Bethel. And as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head! Go up, thou bald head! And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tear forty and two children them. Now it doesn't say that he killed them, although I think that that is the implication that you get from that, that all 42 of them died. Either way, they were sorely wounded by those two she bears. 42 children. Now right away I ask myself the question, where are their parents? 42 of them. You got a gang. Hey, we worry about gangs in the cities today. This is a gang out in the country. And they were mocking the man of God, something they shouldn't have been doing. And the man of God turned, with all his compassion, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And 42 children, God doesn't tell us their ages, doesn't record them for us. they had no respect and of course they suffered. But I do ask the question where were the parents? That tells me something about their heart. Well their parents being their main protection and I'm not going to go through Psalm 78 tonight to deal with that. Even when it comes to their education whether it's home school, public school, Christian school, whatever it is that they're going to be educated in. The Bible says they're under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the fathers. The father is responsible for how the children get educated and what they get educated. Whatever it is. Whichever one it is. Now you can say what you want about the public schools. Obviously they have a number of problems. But may I say there are a lot of great champions in the faith that came out of the public schools. Not that the public schools made them that way. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. But let me go all the way back to Moses. He was brought up in Egyptian schools and he came out the deliverer for Israel. None of the ones brought up in the Israelite schools were the deliverer for Israel. I know a lot of preachers today, there are older preachers today, who did a great work for God and they came out of public schools. Some of the great revivals among teenagers back in the fifties and sixties came out of the Youth for Christ meetings. And they dealt with kids in the public schools. What about that? I'm just simply saying wherever they get educated, or you say, but it's worse today. It is worse today. But doesn't that mean then you need to be paying attention to some things when they get home? There are things you know they're not gonna get in the public school. They better get it at the house. If they don't get it at the house, they're not getting it. And you're responsible for that. So those areas that even by law, the public schools can't teach, you have responsibility to teach. you've got to make sure that they get it. Now, what happens preacher, if you put everything into them? Don't forget Job, his kids were all grown. His family was meeting together as a family, his kids were, and they were gonna have a get together with great feasting. And we find Job giving sacrifices for his children, less in their merriment. they curse God in their heart. Do you know what Job understood? Job understood that his kids, brought up by a parent that was perfect and excute evil, that his kids, together, in a lighthearted moment, could do some things in their heart that would be displeasing to the Lord. He wasn't blind to it, he understood it. All right, we understand, they've got enemies. So they need us as well. But with all the enemies they have, and with hopefully a loving mom and dad who will pour themselves into them, we better pray. And just because they're out of the house, that's not the time to stop praying. Job didn't stop praying. We need to still be praying for them and pleading with God for them. I realize as sweet a girls as God has allowed us to have, they could go wrong tomorrow. They can make wrong choices and get into sin tomorrow. I pray for my daughters. I pray for my grandchildren. And I'm going to have to do that until I die. I'm going to have to keep doing that. Not because I don't trust them. I don't. Because of the devil, the world, the flesh, the deceitful heart, and the deceitfulness of sin. I've got to pray for them. Remember, Brother Brown was here, and in the morning he talked about a hedge around those that we love. What a tremendous message. What a great challenge. You mean as good as they are, we don't get to let up? Nope. Not if you love them. And what about if your child makes some wrong choices? I'm a child, and for you older adults, you understand that a child, hey, I got one daughter in her 40s, another one in her 30s. They're children to me. Mean really they're children to me And so you got a child. All right, they go astray. That's not the time that you give up on That's the time you double down in your prayer time for them But would you please understand this that no matter what you put into them? They still have to make certain choices for themselves. I You can't make, as much as you want them to be saved and go to heaven, you can't make them get saved and go to heaven. As much as you want them to obey the Lord, you cannot make them obey the Lord, and there's nothing you can put into them to make them obey the Lord. Just like with all the Bible training you've had in all of your life, you can still disobey God today. And the choice is yours. So what about these young people? I think parents, I think each generation has complained about the generation that's followed it throughout history. They've had it so much easier than what we had it. And we were such perfect parents. And we were such good people. And we taught them right from wrong. I don't see how they could do those things. Read your Bible. How could David, with all that walk he had had with God, how could David, with all the time alone he'd spent with God, and the things that God had used him to do, how could David do what he did? Because he had a free will. And you know when he sinned? Now, he suffered for it, but God still took him back. God still forgave him. And you know that perfect father in Luke 15? Do you know how I know he's perfect? I mean, there's the fact that yes, he represents God. But how I know he's perfect? When his son came back repentant, he threw a party. I don't find him saying here, well, where is all that money I gave you? Wasted it all, didn't you? Yeah, you can come back, but you're going to sleep in a bunk out in the barn, buddy. That's not this father. Killed a fatted calf. Put on the best robe in the house. Now everything that's left now still goes to the other son, but he's excited. His son has come back repentant. Understand the basics about children. There's a lot more I could say, but I'm gonna end on that note. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus. And Lord, I pray that you would drive these truths to our hearts. Both so that we understand these truths about ourself. They're also true about those that follow us and come after us. May it help even our young people and our young adults that are our children May they understand these truths about their children and about themselves. These are not excuses for sin. It lets us know why we end up getting in the mess we were in a lot of times. And God I pray you even tonight you might bring somebody back to you. I pray you do a work in our lives. And Lord we will thank you as you do that in Jesus name with heads bowed and eyes closed. Now obviously to be God's child you must be saved. If everybody that he saved was perfect then he wouldn't have to chasten us, scourge us like he does. He saves us perfectly but he doesn't make us perfect until heaven. Maybe there's someone tonight though you don't even know you're God's child. You're not really sure that if he died right now you'd go to heaven. And you'd say, preacher pray for me. I don't know I'm saved but I want to be saved. I sure don't want to die and go to hell. Pray for me. Just slip up your hand anywhere in the auditorium. Anywhere. Maybe there's some Christian, young or old makes no difference because we all have the same enemies. And there is the same God the Father and the same Lord Jesus Christ who is the Savior and the same commands and the same things provided for getting right. But are there some believers, and I say preacher, God's dealing with my heart about some things, and it might even be attitudes toward those that have come along after us, who haven't fulfilled exactly what we've wanted for them. You say, Preacher, God's dealing with my heart about some things in my life. Please pray for me. Would you slip your hand up, child of God? Would you do that tonight? God bless you. God bless you. Yes. God bless you on my right. Yes, others on my left. God bless you here in the center. Amen. Amen. Act upon it. Thank God. Claim the promise if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Father, we love you tonight. Do a work, I pray, in our lives. May we be open to you and long for our lives to be right with you. Thank God you don't throw us away when we've disappointed you. But you're their force. You're looking for that repentant heart. that'll come and return to you. Have your way in every life. In Jesus' name I ask it. Let's stand to our feet. We're gonna sing softly, have thine own way.