Here we see how David was willing to put God ahead of himself and would trust God with everything, including his own life. We've got to forsake this tendency to want to hold on to self and live for self, the I love me generation. In 1 Samuel 17, verse 26, it says here, and David spake to the men. You know what happened with David and Goliath. He spake to the men that stood by him saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? So David had God as his focus, as his motivation. He was putting God, he was putting God and the cause of Christ ahead of his own personal safety. because God was first. He had set God before himself and before everything else in life. He jumped down, you know what happens in this text, down through verse 29, he says, and David said, what have I now done? Is there not a cause? And there is a cause. He jumped down to verse 32 and he recounts how God is able to do everything, even when People like Saul were trying to discourage him. He said, no, that God was able to protect him. Verse 36, thy servant slew both a lion and a bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath to find the armies of the living God. David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, go, the Lord be with thee. What an amazing heart of faith! What an amazing heart of obedience! In fact, when Saul was to be replaced as king, and God has David to be anointed to fulfill that position, God makes mention how Saul was not a man of complete obedience. But as Acts 13, turn to Acts 13, as Acts 13 describes, David had that kind of heart, a heart of obedience and a heart of faith. And if we're gonna be people who are in pursuit of God, if we're gonna be people that put God before self, we will follow along being people of obedience and people of faith. If we have a hard time obeying God, If we have a hard time trusting God and living by faith, let's go back to Psalm 68. I've gotta set God before me. In Acts 13, verse 22. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king. To whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. You know, we have a hard time fulfilling God's will. It's a heart problem. We need to set God ahead of self, and God is looking for young people who will fulfill his will. There's a lot of work that God wants to accomplish in this world, and he's looking for young people like you to fulfill it. The question is, will you make the decision to set God before self? Go back to Psalm 16. So here we find, we can study David's life for hours and hours, right? But we know enough about David's life to be able to then look into the Psalms and get a glimpse into what constructs the thinking of David's heart and mind, and he gives us this nugget of truth in verse eight, I have set the Lord always before me. You know, when we talk about setting, I have set the Lord. I have set the Lord always. It basically boils down to making a decision to be committed to God with the heart. It's a decision. It's a decision that you make today, a decision you're gonna make tomorrow. He says, I have set the Lord always, meaning every day, a decision's gotta be made. I've gotta set God first, and here's the danger. before me. Ah, that becomes our challenge. When we get up in the morning, the flesh wants to say me first. Today is a day for me. I will do what pleases me today. I will do what I want. I'll say what I want to say. I'll have whatever attitude I want to have. It's my life. It's my body, I'll do whatever I wanna do with my body. That's the carnal, the flesh, that's how people in the minors, in the minor leagues are acting when we are to be advancing to the major and say, wait a minute, let me follow the example of David, who even as a youth, went from the minors to the majors by making this decision with his heart. I will set God before me. And you've got a world, I honestly, my heart goes out to you. You live in a world that is anything but godly and in tune with the Bible. It's different than my generation. In my generation, there was some. But today, it's so different. And yet, God still can equip you and enable you to live for Him. God still can. You look back into Noah's day. Noah still lived for Christ, no matter what the world did. And you can as well. It's a decision that you make with your heart today. And it boils down to who's first. Is it God or is it you? I know what it's like to be a teenager and claim to be Christian. I know what that's like. I know what it's like to look back at my pictures from my teenage years and see that look of rebellion and pride and I love me. And I see in the youth today, the generation today, I've seen some of it around camp. I get it, you're human. But you don't have to stay there. You don't have to stay in rebellion and bitterness and I love me. One thing you're gonna hopefully figure out in life, whether you go the easy way or the hard way, that's your choice. One thing you're gonna find out is that it would have been easiest to put God first, and best, and even satisfactory. I think it saved the last 20. And it didn't take long for God to teach me that it's always best to put Him first. In every decision, in every way, every day. Set God before me. The word set, an interesting word. The word set means to place, right? You know, if I set a glass of water here, boom, we do that, it means to set. It's an interesting word. It means to have an intentional action. When I set something, it's an intentional action. When I set something, it's also an intensive Action. So where did you do? How'd you find it? I just looked up the word. What does it mean to set something? And it means an intentional action, an intensive action, and it's also an extended action, meaning it's something that's meant to be for a long time. Something that you would therefore repeatedly do in your heart to set God before self. And so that's what's going on with this word set. Let's consider those definitions. First of all, it's an intentional action. In other words, it's my choice. Yes, you have a choice in this. You have to say so. You're at that age where, okay, when you're home, When you're home, your parents are helping you, hopefully, make some right decisions, but your parents also realize that you are a free will agent. You're gonna make decisions on your own. We get that as parents, and we want you to make right decisions, but you get to an age, we can't force that. At some point, we can't force that, but we sure want you to make right decisions. And here's one thing. Here's one thing I want you to do when you go home. Set the Lord before self. Oh, if you would do that one thing, it'll transform everything. You've gotta put God first. And yet I get it, your peers and social media and every advertisement out there is all about putting self first. I see that. I see what's going on. And you're in those formative years where you're setting a pattern. You're setting a pattern as to who will be first in your heart. It must be an intentional action whereby you choose daily, if not even hourly, to put God first. Well, here's some things I like to do. Even at my age, at 147, that was my brother's term, right? 147, is that right? Somewhere around there. Even at my age, temptations are real. As if I was 17 again. Same temptations, because I live in the same world, and I still have the same body, with the same lust that dwells within my members. And so even at my age, and at your age, Here's something I've learned that I hope is a help to you. When faced with temptation, when faced with decisions, I've got to consider who God is. I've got to consider his character. I've got to consider who he is, and therefore consider who I am. He is the creator, I am the creature, therefore he makes a decision. He's first. He's the creator. He knows better than my limited, very limited thinking. He's stronger than anything I think I have. I remember what it's like to be 17 and think you're invincible and you're stronger than anybody else around you. And there's some young men around here that think that, right? And some developing into it. And as a young man, we want to think that we're strong, we want to think that Not even a competition, not even close. It doesn't even compare. God is wiser, God is stronger. God has all authority. And at your age, boy, you're really wanting to see how much of an authority you really have in life. You can't wait sometimes to get out there and be your own man or be your own woman. But if you want to do it right and God's thinking and in reality, God will always be your authority. And authority is a good thing. It's a blessing. It's a blessing to have authority, especially authority that loves you. God loves you. And the best thing that we could ever do is put God first, submit to Him, and follow Him. He loves me. He loves you. He'll always lead me down a wise path. He'll always give me good counsel. David mentions that in that psalm. He says, I will bless the Lord who have given me counsel. God's counsel will always be a good counsel. God will always be a good God, but you've got to make that decision to set the Lord ahead of self. Read Revelation chapter four with me. Revelation chapter 4, this is a verse that really gives a gut check to our pride and to what we are really thinking in our hearts regarding who we are. Again, how do I daily choose to set God forth? It's got to be an intentional action. God, you've got to be first. I want you to be first. because here's a verse that reminds me of this. Revelation 411, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things. He's the creator, I'm the created, and for thy pleasure, they are and were created. I was created to please God. And if I'm not doing that, I'm miserable. I remember as a teenager being miserable. because I was living for me and what made me happy, so I thought. It was all about me, my friends, my car, my job, my money, my fun, my entertainment, and I got those things and was still empty. Still came up short and miserable in the process. Even friends, like, Morse, why are you always so miserable? Here's one thing. I always wanted things to be done my way, even if it was for, like, what are we going to do with the fellows? Hey, what are we going to do? Well, I want to do this. Well, they want to do that, and they win because there's three of them, and there's one of me, and now I'm miserable. Morrison, why are you miserable? Oh, I know why, because you didn't get your way. We can be that way, and we're miserable if it's not me, me, me, and my, my, my. I can tell you on the flip side of salvation, it's an absolute joy to live for the will of God. An absolute joy. I was created to please God. God, let me put you first. What's your will for me today, tomorrow, for my life? What's your will? I get to live for you, and when I put him first, because I was created to please him, I put him first, and he's then pleased by me living for him. Guess what? I'll be pleased as well, because what does David say? He says in verse 11, thou wilt show me the path of life, in thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand. There are pleasures forevermore. You know what's amazing about the word pleasures? See, I grew up and lived such an ungodly life, even though I claimed to be Christian, that pleasures, the word pleasures always has a negative connotation in my thinking. But it's not a negative word. It's actually a positive word. It means to be pleased. God, grab ahold of the scar. God wants you to be pleased in life. But he doesn't want you getting it in the wrong place, in the wrong way. He doesn't want you to have negative pleasures. He doesn't want you to have pleasure with all the consequences and judgments and heartaches and miserable things that come in life. So many young people ruin their life in the area of morality and physical intimacy. They ruin their future for a few moments of negative pleasure. And don't get to experience the joy of a pure marriage. See, God does want you to be pleased in a righteous way. At His right hand, there are pleasures, righteous pleasures with no consequences, negative consequences, with no judgment. God wants you to experience that. You've got to set Him first. You've got to live for Him. You've got to have... And it's not even just about... When I say live for Him, I don't even mean like the day-in, day-out mechanics. Oh, I'm going to live for God. No. It's having a heart for God. It's not about the mechanics. It's about what we're doing. It's about having a heart for God. We've got to set our hearts. upon God. He created us, and if we're not living for Him, we'll be miserable. And so I've got to make an intentional action, an intentional setting of God before self. It's got to be intentional. Look at Proverbs chapter 3. Not only must it be an intentional action where I choose God above self, but also above I, I'll just say it, I was what they call a sucker for peer pressure. Oh, when I was a teenager, oh man, I would do whatever the crowd wants me to do so that I could be cool, and I don't even know what you'd call it today. Someone, someone interpret for me. What do people say today that my generation didn't want to be cool? What is it today? Does that word cool make sense? It's still cool. All right. I understand that. I understand the lingo changes, but the concepts remain the same. I get that. We need to trust God in every situation in life. I was a sucker for peer pressure. Situations when the pressure came on this side of, okay, let's go do that, and pressure over here to do this, and pressure over there to do that. when it comes to pressure. I've even observed here at camp, I haven't been around the guys more than the ladies, but I know what happens with the ladies too. But the younger want to somehow get approval from the older campers. This doesn't just happen at camp, it happens each week, right? Can I say this to the younger? Don't desire to be accepted and influenced by those going in the wrong direction. So how do I, what do I do then? Set God first, even if you're the only one in your youth group. Going God's way. Now, ideally, we want everyone. to go the right way. We want everyone to set the Lord first in every area, over self, in every situation. Proverbs 3, 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It will be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all that increase. You've got to give everything to God. You've got to trust Him. You've got to set Him first and trust Him and lean upon Him, not our own understanding. We've got to put Him first in all of our ways. He'll direct our path. We've got to put Him first so we have a fear of Him and depart from evil. But that's a decision only you can make. I can't make that for you. Your parents can't make them, your youth director, your pastor. Nobody can make that decision for you but you. You've got to decide to set your heart. You look at David, David the youngest of eight brothers. And you know what, it seems like a lie of the oldest and others. It seems like they were, at least they were in the Lord's army, and it's singing season, you know, and all that, right? I mean, at least they were there, but David, David set his heart. upon the Lord, so that when God wanted the next king, he passed by seven of David's brothers, and David was anointed. Why? His looks? No. His strength? No. His number of points in career at camp and how well he did? No. It was his heart. It was his heart that God says, I want him to be king. He was a man that trusted God. He was a man that obeyed God. Why? He tells us in Psalm 68. He set the Lord first. That's why. He put God first in his life. Look at 1 John 2. If we're gonna set God first, it must be an intentional action, intentional. I will choose daily and hourly to make God first. I will choose Him in all things, no matter what my friends say, no matter what siblings say, no matter what anyone says. I'm gonna do what God says. In 1 John, chapter number two, we gotta make an intentional action, an intentional decision to set God first. even in spite of what the world brings our way. 1 John 2 verse 15 says, love not the word. Do you know what that word love means? It means commitment. You know what goes connected in with the word commitment? It's to set. I am committing myself to God. If I'm going to love God, that means I'm committed to God over everyone and everything, including self. And therefore, I'm going to be watching out for the things that would try to keep that from happening in my life. Love not the world. Don't commit yourself to the world. Don't set the world before self. And young people do this all the time. They love the world's philosophies. Love the world's phrases and cliches, and if you're not careful, the thinking that comes along with it. And then comes the attitude, and then ultimately the actions. How does a young person raised in a good environment arrive at the place where we think they were never even near a Bible their entire life? How do they get there? They love the world. Why do they love the world? Because they love themselves. And their flesh, their flesh is attracted. to the things of this world. And that's why God gives us this great instruction, loving up the world. These are the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You can't love God, and you can't love the world at the same time. Make your decision. It's your choice. For all that is in the world, here are the three things that are pulling at you. The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. But use some wisdom, because verse 17 says, And the world passeth away in the lust thereof. It's not going to last you. It's not going to last you. In reality, even 20 years from now, you know, when you're old, what's the world going to do for you then? Don't worry, they'll rise up another generation behind you and think you're old enough and kick you off the scene of being cool. 20 years from now, 50 years from now, and you're really going to be up there. You'll be on social security, shopping for new rocking chairs and hay walkers. What will the world do if we get that? 100 years from now, where will you be? What will the world have done for you at that point? This world's gonna pass away in the luster of, but we have a God in heaven who is eternal, who loves you and wants you to commit yourself to him for your own good and for his glory. Don't love the world. Don't love. Don't give yourself. Don't give yourself. Don't set the lust of the flesh as your number one thing. Don't set the lust of the eyes as your number one thing. And I'll tell you, I think in your generation, the thing you wrestle with most is not even so much the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes. It's the pride of life. The social media generation of trying to put on this persona of being someone that you're not. A persona being something great. The pride of life. Just look at my status. The pride of life. So many young people said, the pride of life. Look who I am. When you ought to be looking at the great I am. You look at who God is. It's an intentional action to set God before self. Number two. It's an intensive action. Oh, it's intensive. It's going to require every part of your being. It's going to be a yielding of your body, a yielding of your soul, and a yielding of your spirit. You see, you can't set God first unless you plan for this to be an intensive action. You know what it means to be intense? I mean, it requires everything. You know, when you're playing Jeopardy, I see some of you get pretty intense. You're ready to answer. There's other times in which I see you more intense. You know what intensive means. Giving it your all and your attention, and if you're gonna set God first, it's gonna have to be an intensive action. It's gotta be intentional. It doesn't just happen. It doesn't just flow into you just because I go to church every week. You've got to make an intentional decision. You've got to make an intensive decision that you are going to yield everything to God so that He is first. Your bodies. You know, over in Corinthians it teaches us, your bodies are not yours. Dude, wait a minute, this is my body. No, it belongs to God. And as soon as we can wrap our minds around that reality, I'll put God first. This body is not my body, it's God's body, and I won't do anything with my body that God says I shouldn't do. You've got to make that decision. And you've got to make that decision again tomorrow. So many young people destroy, destroy their lives by what they do with their bodies. How about your soul? You've got to yield your soul. What's my soul? That's my demand. I need to be willing to yield my soul, my will. My mind, my emotions, my life. I've got to yield it all to God because it all belongs to Him. Look at Galatians chapter 2. We've been looking at the heart of David, his decisions. Paul makes a similar decision in his life. Just as he is saved, he makes this decision in Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. What's the crucified life? God first. I'm dead to myself. Crucified. Intensive. You say, that's a lot. Yeah, it's intensive. The whole package. The whole thing. My body. I've got to put God first. My body is not my own. My will. My intellect. My emotions. They've all got to be subjected to the God that loves me. Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yeah, not I. But Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, here's his heart, who loved me and gave himself for me. How do I know God loves me? Somebody wrestle with that. How do I know God loves me? He gave himself for you. Proof is right there. And here's something else I want you to think about. God loves you more than you love yourself. But he does it with complete righteousness and holiness. He has all power. He has all wisdom. The love you have for yourself is so shallow and empty and is often the wrong direction. Paul understood this. God loves me. He gave himself for me. He died for me. I'll put it first. I have set the Lord always before me. And you see Paul's entire life, all the way to the end, read about it in 2 Timothy, all the way to the end. Paul put God ahead of self. It's that simple, but it's that hard. It's gotta be an intentional action. It's gotta be an intensive action, yielding the entire being, yielding my spirit, everything about my being. And here's the last thought. It's also an extended action. An extended action. That means every day. Every day. I have set the Lord always Always, in everything, in every way, in all times, every day, I've got to continually make my choice. I've got to continually put God before me. I have set the Lord always before me. I have set the Lord always before me. But what do you do when you mess up? You ever wrestle with that? I do. Sometimes I'm my own worst critic. I know the sandwich does so easily to set me. I know where I fail. I know where I don't do well. I know where I'm tempted. I know where things don't go well. And there's a part of my flesh that would be like, what's the use of trying? I can't do this anyway. Well, the devil would love for me to have a pity party. and just quit putting God first. Just go after something else and do this and do that. And I'm not going to go there. Because every day, I've got to set the Lord always before me. So what do you do? What do you do when you have sin in your life? What do you do when you have a wrong attitude in life? What do you do when you're not living right? I hope you get this illustration. But back in my day, when we played video games, there was a reset button. I don't know what you have today in game systems. I'm with you, Brother Sturm. Once it got past one button and the joystick, I couldn't. I had a hard time with a Nintendo, where there was a directional and two buttons. That was about all my brain could handle. But the thing I love most about the gaming systems, back in my day, is it had a reset button, right there, big button on the front of the machine. I think you remember those buttons, right? And when you weren't doing well in your game, what'd you do? You stood up, you walked over, boop, reset, and we start over. And I believe God has given us a reset button. Look at 1 John, chapter two. We're gonna mess up. There are going to be days when we're not doing right, when we are having wrong thoughts, wrong attitudes, wrong actions. There will be times, and sadly, there will be times when we have a period of time when we're not doing right and we're not doing well. Unfortunately, those times can come. We shouldn't desire that. We shouldn't want there to be times like that. We should want to do well. We should want to be right always. But what about when we don't? 1 John chapter 2. Verse one, God has an answer for us. My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. God who loves us does not want us to sin. Why? Well, it offends him. Yes, it offends him, but it also destroys us. It's twofold. Remember, God wants us to obey him. Yes, it pleases him, but it also is a blessing, and it pleases you as well. God wants us to live by faith because God is pleased and God is honored, but it's a blessing for us as well. So God does not want to send the little children, these things right in front of you, that you sin not. That's His plan. And if any man sin, because God knows what we're made of, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, amen. the righteous, an advocate, a lawyer, someone who's standing there to defend us and help us. He'll never defend the wrong that we've done as if it's no big deal, but he will go before the Father so that we can be made right with him. Thankfully, when we're saved, all of our sins are forgiven, past, present, future. But there does come a time in the Christian life when we sin. We've got to get right with our Father. It's time to reset. Reset. God, you're first. I've been committing this sin. I've been having this attitude. I have been failing to do this. I've been doing, I mean, there's all these things where we know, like, the game of life is not going well. It's time for a reset. And you make that decision as well. You make that decision, just like in the gaming system, you make the decision when it's time to bail out of this segment of the game. I gotta start over because it's just not going well. At any point, young people, at any point, that reset button's available for you. Amen. Where you can reset the Lord first in your life. Having a hard time obeying God? It's time to reset. Having a hard time trusting God? Time to reset. so that we can say with David, I have set the Lord always before me. Set the Lord, look at one verse and we'll close. Look at Psalm 78. There was a generation that died off in the wilderness after they came out of Egypt. And God was merciful unto them, and God was gracious. And you can read the context of this psalm later. But it says in verse 7 that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. Psalm 78, verse 8. And might not be as their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright. and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. They didn't set their heart aright. You know what the right place to set their heart was? God first. But in that generation in the wilderness, it was me first. Didn't go well that generation. They died off in the wilderness and God raised up a new generation that would trust Him and obey Him because they put God first. You're at camp this week. Maybe it's time for a reset. Maybe it's time to commit even the first part of Psalm 16, 8 to memory. I will set the Lord always before me. And if you'd go home with that and put it to practice, you'd be the majors. You'll be a major league player that God can use for His glory and for your own pleasure. You say, nah, I got a better idea. No you don't. I'll be my own authority. You're gonna find out that you're not. You're gonna find out the hard way that there's even civil authority that you'll get to meet. You'll always be under authority. Why not submit to the authority that loves you? It's gonna go much better. Sometimes we're just, Our hearts aren't there. It's time for a reset. May God reset our hearts this week so that we can say and live out every day, I will set the Lord always before me. Father, thank you for the time we've had this morning to consider this simple but profound verse. And I pray for each young person that they would make that decision in their heart today to set you before themselves. Father, help me as the same way to every day to set you first, to set you always before me. And I pray you bless this truth in Jesus.