Thank you for that song, Martha. Appreciate that very much. Not as familiar to me as some of the others, but tremendous song. It's a tremendous truth of Scripture that God is there. If you're trying to get in trouble, that can be convicting. But if you're not, that can be very comforting. And so, appreciate that very much. Found some things that, you know, all of us are probably tired of the lockdown restrictions and looking for things to loosen up. There are a few benefits though. One benefit of the lockdown and hair salons and barbershops being closed is that the percentage of selfies being posted is down tremendously, to about two thirds by one estimate. One fella said, though he was bored to death, being in lockdown, he was almost as bored as an Amish electrician. I don't know. I've never been one of those, but I thought that was pretty interesting. But here's a tip for you. One of the things you're not supposed to do is you're not supposed to touch your face all the time. If you keep a cookie in each hand, it will keep you from touching your face. So maybe little things to help you get through the lockdown restrictions until they're lifted. in your state. All right, Brother Bean put up a poll for us at the beginning since you weren't always necessarily able to collaborate and find out. John Smith texted me his guess a little while ago. And I told him he had a 59 to 41% chance of being right, because that's the percentages, 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 in the New, that comes out to 59, 41% division. The final numbers here were the 54% of you guessed New Testament, 46% of you guessed Old Testament, and some of you were right. All right, turn with me if you would, please, to the book of Qoheleth. If you don't know what that is, then find Ecclesiastes. Okay, Koheleth is the Hebrew name of the book. I did that in honor of Dr. Dillon. And to remind some of you that you ought to sign up for Hebrew class next semester. Now you will enjoy that, it will benefit you. But we're not looking at Ecclesiastes chapter one, but in Ecclesiastes chapter one, it says the words of the preacher, the son of David, and that the word preacher there is the word Kohelet, that's where the Hebrew name of the book comes from. We're gonna be looking at Ecclesiastes 12 today. Ecclesiastes 12. My title is very simple. It's simply this, don't forget to remember. Don't forget to remember. Now this is the end of the semester. This is exams time. And so there have been a lot of things that you were supposed to remember. Notice I didn't say that you did remember because I have been talking to your teachers and I've seen some of the assignments in my own classes. Some of you didn't always remember everything or you remembered at the last minute. But we're gonna look here in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 this morning, just this simple thought as we look at wrapping up the school year and transitioning into the summer. Don't forget to remember, let's bow for prayer. Lord, we pray that you would use your word to speak to our hearts and Lord, I pray that your word would have a lasting effect. Thank you for the preaching of Brother Harper already this week and the chapels that we've had throughout the semester in the school year and Lord, we pray that you'd use the sword of the spirit to do your work. and that you'd help us to be pleasing to you as a result of our response to your word. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse number 1, 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. And then the next section here, the next several verses describe some of the things that eventually are no fun. And then drop down to verse number 13 with me. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing. whether it be good or whether it be evil. And we're gonna look here at Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and our time together in chapel this morning. But simply don't forget to remember, you see the command here in chapter 12 in verse number one, that gives us four things we're gonna look at. This is our first one here. And that is the priority in youth. We're gonna see the priority in youth, the privilege of youth, a pattern of youth, and then some perspective for youth. Okay? That's what we're going to see, Lord willing, in our time together today. But number one, I want you to see with me the priority in youth that's given here in verse number one. Remember now thy Creator, in the days of thy youth. This word remember is a command. It's something that we are expected to do, not just expected to do, we are told to do. So don't forget to remember. That's where we get our title, okay? But to remember, this word remember has two or three related meanings. One of them is just simply, you know, the mental aspect of remembering to think about something. Often then, remembering something should be accompanied by actions. Students can relate to that. Teachers can relate to that. When you remember, oh yeah, we have a quiz tomorrow, that should be accompanied by studying. It's not always, but it should be. When you remember, oh yeah, Sunday is Mother's Day, that should be accompanied by, you're welcome, all of you that said, oh yeah, you got a couple of days to get your mom a card, or if you're on lockdown, revert to elementary school, get the construction paper and the scissors and make her one, okay? But when you remember that it's Mother's Day, you should be doing something in some way to thank and honor your mother. Okay, so remember has the sense simply just the mental activity of being reminded. It has the idea of remembering which prompts action. And then a third that's related to that is the idea of remembering, excuse me, which causes us to say something. So the idea of just remembering something, that mental action, in Psalm 63 and verse six, the psalmist says, when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate upon thee in the night watches, that's just to think about, to remember. Psalm 137 says, by the river of Babylon, we sat down, we wept when we remembered Zion, we were thinking about the way it used to be in our land. That would have been during the final captivity, the captivity of Judah, when they were transported to Babylon. Okay, there are times when you remember, oh yeah, I gotta take my final sometime today. Okay, I have seen the timestamps on some of those. Some of you got on it early and there have been some of you that did exactly what we asked you not to do and start that exam about 11, 11.30 p.m. See if I can cram it in before the midnight deadline. Okay. But there's the idea of just remembering. But sometimes remembering is accompanied by action as it should be. In Genesis 30 and verse 22, the Bible says, God remembered Rachel. and opened her womb. If you remember, she was barren. Rachel and Leah, you know, there was that competition between the sisters and Rachel had been beseeching God. Well, God remembered her and he acted on her behalf. In Genesis 8 and verse number one, God remembered Noah and everything living thing and the cattle that was with him in the ark and God made a wind to pass over there. So when God remembered him, it caused him to do something, not that God had forgotten, but the idea of the thought coming to your mind that prompts action. And the idea of it prompting words, Jonah 2 and verse 7 says, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. This is Jonah while he's in the belly of the fish. And he says, I remember the Lord and my prayer came unto thee, into thine holy temple. So when Jonah is reflecting on, all right, how did I get here? How did I end up in the belly of the fish? He remembered, yeah, God told me to do this and I disobeyed and that's how I got here. And it caused him to cry out to the Lord. The idea here of remember now thy creator, all of these are appropriate. We should be thinking on God and thinking about God, but it should cause us to do certain things that we'll talk about here through the message. But the priority in you should be, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. If you're to go back, through the book of Ecclesiastes, you would see that Solomon, who's the writer of the, the human writer of this, could have been the originator. I don't think this slogan was around then, but have you ever, have you seen the slogan that says, been there, done that? Got the t-shirt. Okay. Yes. Been there, done that. This is my souvenir. Well, Ecclesiastes is kind of Solomon's been there, done that list. If you go, If you go back and look through, He'll tell you, I tried this, and I tried this, and I tried this, and I tried this, and I tried this, and I sought this, and I gave my heart to this. He said, you name it, I've tried it. And then here's the conclusion. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. There is a temptation for young people who have grown up in church, grown up in a godly family, grown up in a structured home where you've not been exposed to a lot of the things or allowed to participate in a lot of the things that the world idolizes and promotes and talks about as being so fulfilling. There is a temptation sometimes to think Boy, I wonder if I'm missing out. Boy, that really does look like fun. I think maybe my parents were too strict. I think ambassador's handbook is too strict. I think my pastor is too strict. He's too old fashioned. Solomon says, look, just take my word for it. I've tried it all. And I'm going to tell you what you need to do. Remember now thy creator. in the days of thy youth. Our priority should be thinking on God and thinking on God in such a way that it causes me to act in a way that he'll be pleased with. As you're wrapping up your semester and thinking about summer, you know, a few of you thought you knew what you're gonna be traveling with a group for the college this summer. And the restrictions in our country have changed that. Many of you were planning to work in camps or internships, missions trips, and now you're thinking, OK, what do I do now? Or how's this going to work? Or how's this going to wrap up? Some of you may have had work lined up. And with layoffs and furloughs, that may affect your summer work for a little while. And you think, boy, I don't know what I'm going to do. May I encourage you, don't coast and put it in neutral. Don't just say, well, whatever. I've got this summer. I'm going to find something fun. Now, I'm not against finding something fun to do. I hope to do that myself this summer. But don't waste it on the world's definition of fun. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. So we see, first of all, the priority in youth should be remember now that creator. Number two, I want you to see with me the privilege of youth. That's in the second phrase here, in the days of that youth. It is a privilege to have youth. I remember as a young assistant pastor, Once a month there was a group of pastors that would get together for a pastor's fellowship, a time of encouragement. There were two or three men that would usually preach to the group, and that was some encouragement because pastors don't always get preached to as much as they do the preaching. And sometimes it was just as much for the fellowship in the car, there and back, and swapping stories or swapping encouragement. or just hanging out with your ministry friends. One of the things you can do now in college, or you can do when we're together on campus, yet another benefit of in-person instruction. But, you know, I was the youngest one in the vehicle most of the time by probably 30 years. So sometimes they would start talking about health problems they were having, or this hurts, or I got to go get this checked out, or this problem, or that problem. And they would tell me, you just wait. One day, this is going to be you. And I said, thank you so much. You guys are like Job's friends. You're real encouragers. But there is a privilege of youth. You don't think about it. You know, you don't, you can burn the candle at both ends for longer. It will eventually meet in the middle. You will pay for it, but you can go, you can do, there are, you can sleep anywhere. You could sleep on your dorm room floor. That wouldn't work as well for me now. If you polled our faculty, that probably wouldn't work as well for most of them either, but there is a privilege. This word youth here, the word youth comes, is a noun form. The verb form means to choose. And the idea of youth is that being the choice part. That's why I say the privilege of youth. It has the idea of being the choice part. What do I mean by that? Do you ever go to the store and you go to the meat department when there used to be a whole full rack and there still is in some places, but you know, this is choice USDA prime, or this is choice beef, or this is the choice cut. What does that mean? It means it's the best part. And The idea here of youth, this term, the choice ones would refer to the young men that were in the prime of life that would have been the choice candidates or the prime candidates when they were assembling an army. These are the ones that are ready to go and fight. These are the ones that have the strength and the energy and the stamina to go and serve their country, to serve in war and that kind of thing. But that's the idea of this word youth. In other words, it's the choice or it's the best part. Now, there are advantages to being young. There's boundless energy. In many ways, youth is wasted on the young. They don't know what they have. And by the time you know what to do with the energy, you don't have as much as you used to. Now, I'm telling you what Brother Spencer and Brother Bray have told me. You know, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll get there one day, but no, I'm just kidding. But I am in an interesting position. I'm twice the age or a little more of most of you students, not John Smith, but twice the age of most of you students and not quite half the age of some of our faculty members. I'll let you do the math on that. So what I'm saying is youth is relative. In that perspective, I would consider youth. Most of you don't look at me and think youth. I understand that. but God has entrusted you with a choice time of life. I mean, teenagers often spend a lot of their life trying desperately to get out of their teen years because they wanna have a car, they wanna have a job, they wanna be able to go and do, not realizing the freedoms and the privileges that you have. In your teen years, a lot of times your responsibilities are go to school, do your homework, maybe do your chores, and then you got free time. Guess what? You come to college, you go to class, and is it then free time? Some of you treat it that way, but that's not really the way it is. You got homework, and you got work, and you gain more responsibilities. You're looking forward to getting married, but when you do, you have work, and you have ministry, and you have additional responsibilities. And there are certainly privileges of youth, not only the time, but the strength and good health that God blesses you with. There is a privilege of youth. What are you doing with it? You only get to be young once. Now, there is a certain sense in which you are, many folks end up being a child, an adult once and a child twice. And what I mean by that is there are times when illness and deterioration caused by sin at the end of life causes you to lose the ability to do things for yourself like you want to. And you need help to do things like when you were little. And it's very, very frustrating. Be kind to your parents. If they end up in that situation, you end up helping them. But there's a privilege of being young, but what are you doing with it? Or let me say it another way. How are you investing it? Solomon says, I can tell you, I tried this and I tried this and I tried this and I tried this and I tried this. And let me tell you what you need to do with your youth. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. So you see the priority in youth. Remember your creator. You see the privilege of youth. That being that choice or prime time of life. And then number three, I want you to see with me some patterns of youth. I'm gonna draw this from other places in the scripture, but some patterns of youth. What are some pitfalls? Well, in Job 13 and verse 26, he says, you know, God's remembering against me the iniquities of my youth. In Psalm 25 verse six, I believe that's David who wrote there and speaks of the sins of my youth. There are times when you, are foolish and it sticks with you, at least you have regret. There is another sense, though, in which it can be a positive. Job 29 verse 4, again, Job speaking and he says, I wish I could have the days of my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle. In other words, Job said, when I was a young man, I had the power of God on my life. I had fellowship with God. I had sweet communion. I knew God was working in my life. In Psalm 71 and verse 5, David said, Thou art my trust from my youth. So it can be a time of regret, but it can be a time of developing a relationship with God. But the patterns that are developed in youth do affect you into adulthood. They're not a guarantee, nor are they a disqualifier in the sense that, well, if I wasted my youth, that means I can never do anything for God. That's not what I'm saying. There are the sins of youth that sometimes stick with you. There are the secrets learned in youth that stick with you the rest of your life. There is sometimes a lack of discernment with youth. In Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 4, one of the purposes, one of the stated purposes for the book of Proverbs was this, to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion. What is implied there or straight out stated is that the young person often lacks subtlety or discernment. In Proverbs 7, when you have the discussion of a strange woman, Solomon says, I discerned among the simple ones a youth, a young man void of understanding. That word simple means open. And he may or may not have been looking for trouble, but he was definitely open. He was not discerning. Being around little kids can be a lot of fun, can it? It can be a lot of fun. But if you know, their minds are open, their eyes are open. I mean, when they're awake, they're wide awake and they're full tilt all the time, usually, right? And they're learning, their ability to absorb things is incredible. But if you take a one-year-old child, two-year-old child, and as they're learning things, I mean, you take them when they're really small and there are little books and you point with your finger or maybe you take their finger and you put it on the book, this yellow, red, blue, you teach them their colors, teach them numbers, things like that. At that point in time, you could tell them that this color is, you could point to a block that's orange and say blue. They're open. They would believe you. You could teach them the wrong label for every color in that little book and they would be wide open to that. That doesn't make them sinful. It just makes them lacking in discernment. Lacking in that subtlety or that skill of knowing how to use knowledge and apply it to life situations. But sometimes youth means a lack of discernment. Proverbs was given to give subtlety to the simple, to help you avoid the situation like Proverbs 7, where this simple one among the youth, a young man void of understanding. You've probably seen the little poster or slogan that says, quick, teens, run away from home now while you still know everything, have all the answers. There is a tendency to think as a young person, you've got it all figured out, okay? The freshmen often are like that. I mean, I am a high school graduate, homeschool graduate, whatever, you know? And I have all the answers. By the time you get to your senior year, you figure out, yeah, maybe I don't have all the answers. And not only do I not have all the answers, I don't even know all the questions. The longer you go in life, the more you realize that's true. But one of the pitfalls of youth sometimes is not realizing that you need that information or that you need that advice. An example of that that would go along with another pitfall of youth that would be a sense of entitlement. In 1 Kings chapter 12, we read about Rehoboam. After Solomon passed away, Rehoboam became king. And in verses eight and 10 of 1 Kings chapter 12, we read that Rehoboam consulted with the young men that had grown up with him. And their advice was, you tell those people, you ain't seen nothing yet, pardon my poor grammar, okay? You tell them I'm gonna be tougher on you than anything you've ever seen. The old men said, son, you'd be wise to listen. You'd be wise to ease up on them. Maybe it was a sense of entitlement. Maybe it's just the pride of youth of, I don't need to listen to the older people. I got this figured out. Rehoboam made a very bad decision. So there can be some pitfalls in youth, but I want you to see also, when we talk about the pattern of youth, I want you to see some positive examples in youth. And this is where I want to spend a few minutes of our remaining time here. Some positive examples in youth. If we begin in the book of Genesis, in Genesis 39, we meet a young man by the name of Joseph. He was, at best, a teenager when we meet him. His father had chosen him. He was the favorite son through no fault of his own. And he was a young man. We see in Genesis 37, even back that far, God was giving him dreams. In other words, God was beginning to speak to him and show him things in dreams. What does that tell me? That tells me that Joseph, as a young man, was open to the things of the Lord. But as a young man, God is beginning to show him things. His brothers loved him and appreciated him for it. True or false? That's obviously wrong. His brothers hated him because of his dreams. Now, maybe some of that lack of discernment and youth came out when he just went and told the dream. And the interpretation of the dream was that all of his brothers and his mom and dad were going to bow down and worship him one day. And I said, no, we're not. Exactly what your brothers and sisters would say if you told them a similar thing. But Joseph, as a young man, God was working in his life. Well, out of jealousy, his brother sold him into slavery. And what happened? In Genesis 39, he was bought by Potiphar. And Potiphar began to observe him and saw that God blessed the house of Potiphar because of Joseph. As a young man, the blessing of God was on his life. He was thrown into jail as a wrongfully made accusation was leveled against him. In jail, he continued to demonstrate responsibility and a right attitude. Eventually he was put in charge of the jail. And then when it came time for some dreams, he interpreted them for his cellmates or his prison mates. And eventually that led to his promotion when Pharaoh had a dream. But Joseph was a young man who had what we would call bad circumstances. And yet he continued to walk with God and God used him tremendously. Joseph ended up being the prime minister in Egypt and lived in that capacity for 70 years probably. If he died at 110, it may have been 80 years. He was 30 years old when he became the prime minister of Egypt. What I'm saying is the choices that he made as a youth, as a teenager, as a young adult, determined where he would be in 10, 15, 20 years down the road. But that's a very positive example. When Potiphar's wife came to him in Genesis 39, he said, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? He had a perspective of his relationship with God that guided his decisions and it put him in a place where he wanted to be. We move forward a little bit into the book of Exodus. In Exodus 17, we meet a young man by the name of Joshua. The Bible says in Exodus 17 that Moses said, I'm going to go up here on the mountain with the rod of God in my hand or up on the hill. You're going to go down here and fight the enemy. And that's the story when Moses held up his rod. Israel prevailed when his arms got tired. But Joshua was down there leading the army. In Exodus 24 then, We see he's described as Moses' servant, Moses' minister, and he was allowed to go up on the mountain. When Moses went up on the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, and later when he spent 40 days and nights getting all the laws and the pattern for the tabernacle and all that, guess who was up on the mountain with him? Joshua. In Exodus 33, then, we find this statement. In Exodus 33, in verse 11, it says, But Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. In Exodus 32, you have the story of the golden calves. Moses comes down, sees what the people have done. He takes the tablets that were written with the finger of God. He breaks them on the ground to visually represent how they had broken God's law. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make any graven image. And then he took those golden calves, grounded up, put it in their water and made them drink it. Well then he took the tabernacle and he set it up outside the camp as a sign that the fellowship with God was broken because of their sin. And then those that wanted to seek God went out there. Guess who one of those young men was that departed not out of the tabernacle that was seeking the presence of God? Yeah, that was Joshua. who became the leader later after the death of Moses? Joshua did. But Joshua didn't start out being the leader of Israel. He started out being a young man who was seeking God and who continued to serve God faithfully in whatever step was put in front of him, and then God would show him the next step. When we get down to Numbers chapter 13, and it was time to send in spies, guess who one of those chosen 12 would be? It would be Joshua. You know that Joshua and Caleb were the ones that encouraged the people to trust God. And then that brings us into the book of Joshua and Judges, and then we get to Ruth. In Ruth chapter 1, we meet the young lady for whom the book is named, Ruth. She was a young lady there married to one of the sons of a limeleck who died. So when we meet Ruth, she's most likely a teenager at no more than early 20s. Her husband dies. Naomi says, I'm going back to my homeland. And Ruth says, no, no, no, I'm going with you. Your God is going to be my God. Your people are going to be my people. Talked about that text the last time I had the chance to preach in chapel. But Ruth, as a young lady, made a choice. Your God is gonna be my God. Ruth chose, I'm going to follow the God of Israel. I'm gonna follow the God of Naomi. Where did that put her? Well, that put her in poverty. She went back and lived with Naomi and they were gleaning. That's what the poor people did. That was the social net to catch the poor people in that day. She's working for a pittance. You think, yeah, that's me. That's what I worked for as a college student. I understand that. Where did it put her? It put her in a poor house. Did she quit and go home, go back to her family and her idols? No. And eventually what happened? She caught the eye of Boaz and she was eventually the bride of Boaz and she became part of the line of King David and then ultimately the line of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because as a young person she made a choice, I'm going to follow the God of Israel. Then we go into the book of 1 Samuel and we meet the young man for whom the book would be named Samuel. In chapter 1 and 2, his mother's praying for a son. God gives her the son. She gives him back to the Lord. And in 1 Samuel chapter 2, we read this statement that the young man departed not out of the tabernacle. As a young man, Samuel served the Lord there. There were the evil influences of Hophni and Phinehas. And there was Eli who was trying to, I personally think, rectify the mistakes that he made with Hophni and Phinehas by having a second chance and trying to raise Samuel correctly. But Samuel, as a young man, made the choice to follow God. He was a youth, probably 10, 12 years old when the story in 1 Samuel 3, Samuel, Samuel, And he runs to Eli and eventually says, you say, speak, Lord. He said, speak, Lord, for thy servant hear it. And he begins to listen to the voice of God. As a young man, he made that choice. And he was able to serve God for the rest of his life because of the choice made in his youth. What am I saying? I'm saying that Joseph and Joshua and Ruth and Samuel made the choice to remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. We can go on a little bit further in 1 Samuel. The most well-known story in 1 Samuel is probably in chapter 17, what we call David and Goliath. But you remember after all of this set up, he walks out to the battlefield, Goliath looks at him, and what is the statement of Scripture? It says he disdained him because he was a youth and of a ruddy count. But Goliath disdained him because he was a youth. Did that deter God from using David? Not at all. In fact, God used the youth to bring victory to the country, to inspire others to trust God. Eventually, he would be the leader of the country. What am I saying? I'm saying it's not a matter of, well, I'm going to serve God one day after I get out of Bible college. I'm going to be in the ministry one day. No, you have a ministry now. You may have a more full-time ministry in the future. The ways in which you can serve may grow and change and morph over the years, but remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. You can serve God now as a youth. David was a teenager when he faced Goliath. Goliath disdained him because of his youth. And yet God used him as a young man who was willing to say, who is this Philistine to defy the armies of the living God? David was more concerned about the testimony of God than about his own personal well-being. If we go on down a little bit further into 1 and 2 Kings, we meet Elisha, the young man who was tapped to take the place of the prophet Elijah. When we get a little bit further down, we meet Josiah, who the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 34 and verse 3, while he was yet young, he began to seek the Lord. He was 8 years old when he became king and about 16 years old he began to seek the Lord. And one of the greatest revivals in the history of Israel and Judah was led by a young man who was a teenager, maybe 20. We go down a little bit further. We run into the book of Esther. And again, we meet a young lady. We're told the most famous phrase out of that book is probably, who knows whether you're come to the kingdom for such a time as this. God placed her in that spot at that time. She had to demonstrate faith in God. All right, I'm going to go and I'm going to trust that God's going to take care of me if I go speak to the king uninvited. And God did in fact take care of her. But because Esther as a young person decided to trust God and do what she could to serve God. Was she a preacher? No. Did she have the best marriage ever? I doubt it. I mean, she was one of a collection of the king. We're not told after this what the rest of her married life as the queen was like, but God used her as a young lady because she was willing to do what she could do instead of waiting till she could do something that she thought was spectacular. You see Esther remembering her creator in the days of her youth. We could go on down further in Jeremiah chapter one, where God tells the prophet Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. We can go to Daniel and see where Daniel was part of that first group, the young people that were carried away to Babylon. And as a young man, he made a choice that he didn't want the king's meat or the wine or all of that, and how God used Daniel. We go a little bit further down into the New Testament. We meet another young lady by the name of Mary, and God says, I've got something for you. I want you to carry a child that will be the son of the highest. We see Jesus described in Luke chapter 2, the last section of Luke 2. He's 12 years old. He says, I must be about my father's business. As a young person, he was remembering now his Creator. In John 6 and verse 9, we have an unnamed lad. There's a lad here that has five loaves and two fishes, but what are they, right? In 1 Timothy 4 and 12, we read this, Let no man despise thy youth. We see the young man, Timothy, in Acts, we see where Paul picked him up. But Timothy as a young man served God. What am I saying? I'm giving you positive examples of folks who chose to remember now their Creator in the days of their youth. So we see here the priority in youth, the privilege of youth, the patterns of youth. And then in closing, I want you to see with me number four, the perspective on youth. Look at verses 13 and 14 in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 with me. Ecclesiastes 12 verses 13 and 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. That word conclusion means the end. It's interesting. that that word is in other places in the Old Testament used to mean to consume or to utterly consume. If you've ever lived near the coast when a hurricane came through, or maybe you live in the Midwest in Tornado Alley, and you see the absolute destruction, that's the end of that building. It's going to be torn down and rebuilt. Okay, that's the idea here. But the end, what is the end result? The final answer. Let us hear the conclusion, the end of the whole matter. Fear God. and keep His commandments. Those statements are emphatic. There is an emphasis there on God and His commandments. Fear God and keep His commandments. That is a bit of Hebrew parallelism. Take poetical books next fall. We'll talk more about that. But it's two ways of restating the same idea in a similar fashion to reinforce the point. Fear God and keep His commandments. In other words, if you fear God, you will keep His commandments. If you are not keeping His commandments, it is an evidence that you are not fearing God. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. You see the word for twice in these verses. Verse 13, you see, for this is the whole duty of man. Verse 14, the first word, for God shall bring every work into judgment. Both of those words are introducing the cause, or if I could say it this way, the reason, the because statement. I want you to do this. Why? Because. Why should I fear God and keep His commandments? Because this is the whole duty of man. Because God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good, whether it be evil. That is an exact corollary to 1 Corinthians 3, is it not? that our works will be judged when we stand before the Lord. Don't forget to remember what? Remember the priority of youth. Remember now that creator in the days of thy youth. Remember the privilege of youth. It is a privilege to be young. Use it. Remember the pattern of youth and purpose to be one of those good examples. And then remember God's perspective. Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. I hope this summer that you will choose to make your youth count for something in the perspective of God. and not get sidetracked with other ways and end up wasting the youth that God has given you. Would you do that? Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the privilege of youth and the patterns that we can copy. Lord, I pray you'd help us, whether young or old, to make choices that'll be pleasing to you. Well, thank you now in Jesus' name.