Dr. Rand Hummel, many of you, if not the majority of you, or most of you in this student body, university family, know him. And I've sat under his ministry either at the Wilds in North Carolina or as a youth speaker in your church or a family camp speaker. But he has varied ministry and an extremely fruitful ministry that the Lord has given him and his family over the years. He's a 1978 graduate of the university. And in 2002, the university gave him an honorary doctorate. in recognition of the unusual way in which the Lord has gifted and blessed and used him for Christ's sake in numerous lives for numerous years. He, his wife Amber, who's with us tonight, is also a graduate. And both of their children, Josh and Anna, are graduates of the university. And we praise the Lord for their family and the way they have been used. He was saved as a six-year-old. After a Sunday morning service, an evangelist was in his church. And he spoke to the evangelist after the service and came to know Christ personally. But then when he was a student here in 1975 in the stairwell of Graves Residence Hall, he got assurance of his salvation and has been fruitfully serving his Redeemer, the Lord, ever since. He has spent more than 25 years with the Wilds, more than 25 of them as program director at the camp in North Carolina. His burden is primarily to teens, to try to encourage teens, young people to love God and to hate sin, a dual-edged emphasis, but is one that we see throughout scripture. And he has done that very effectively. But beyond his ministry at the Wilds, he's done that in numerous ways. And he served as youth pastor for some time, an interim pastor, an adjunct professor, both here at the university and at Northland Baptist Bible College as well. And also as an author, he's written numerous books, some devotional books, some Bible studies, a scripture memory. program, all of those published through the Wilds. And then from the University Press, he has produced three books, one that deals with the dangers, the moral dangers of the internet, and then two, one providing meditations to fight moral impurity, and then another with meditations to fight anger and bitterness, all extremely important issues that are prevalent in the modern church, prevalent largely even among Christian young people, teenagers, I would encourage all of those books to you for personal study, for devotion, for whatever needs you may have. They're scriptural, and they are powerful. And now this past summer, they had their first full summer program at the Wilds of New England. He serves as director there. It's been amazing to see the Lord answer prayer, open doors, and make that possible. And they enjoyed their first full summer of ministry there this summer. Rand Hummel, it's a blessing to have him here with us tonight and tomorrow night. He also spent some time today at the coffee shop and the snack shop meeting with some of you. And I know you'll want to say hello to him, thank him for being here as you see him, and Amber around campus. But he's a friend to teens through camp ministry, through pulpit ministry outside of camp, through his use of the pen, all of which is for Christ's sake. He is my personal friend, and he is a graduate of whom we're proud and we're very thankful to be able to sit under his ministry of the word Tonight and tomorrow night, do trust your hearts are prepared and that you will respond however the Lord indicates is necessary through the work of His Word. Well, here you are, ready to begin another major chapter of life. I'm sure there is some fear and trepidation in many of your hearts. How you're going to pay your bills if you'll meet your future mate. How you can pass your classes if you'll meet your future mate. All these big time things that you struggle with. And as we begin, I do, I just, I want to pray for you. for your whole year. I get the privilege, and it is a definite privilege, to be with you here just two nights. But I want to pray that God will give you the greatest spiritual year you have ever faced in your whole life. Let's bow our heads, please. And I am going to talk to God for you. But before I pray, how many of you would say, Rand, first of all, I want you to thank the Lord for the great summer. Because I had one of those summers, you would say, that I was in God's Word, I had great spiritual victories over temptation. And really, I came to school this year with my heart prepared, eager, and ready to live for God. So, you want me to thank the Lord for you? You're doing good, okay? Let me see your hands, please, real high. That's great. God bless you. That's wonderful. You can put them down. How many would say, Rand, my summer was not that way. In fact, I'm kind of miserable because temptation got the best of me. My devotional life was almost non-existent. And I really kind of let down, and I need to change. And I know I kind of wandered from God, and I'm troubled because of that. And I'm really looking this year to get back close to my Lord again. But I had a tough summer. And you just say, Rand, you pray that God will help me to get out of this mess that I've been in. And it's hard, and I hate it. So pray for me. Can I see your hands, please, real high? God bless you. That's great. Maybe someone who says, Rand, a lot of this is really new to me, and I want you to pray for me because I'm not even sure that I'm a Christian. I've heard a lot about this, but I'm really struggling. I've been here a couple days, and I notice there's something different about the teachers and most of the students and all. And you say, I'm really praying that this year I can solidify this about my salvation. I've struggled with this for a long time. And just as you begin this school year, please pray for me. I'm struggling with my salvation. Pray for me. Can I see your hands, please? Lift them up high. God bless you. That's great. Father, You know the hearts of each one of us. Lord, I ask You to give these students the greatest year that they've ever faced. I pray that You'd help them be consistent in Your Word and consistently say no to temptation. Father, I thank You for those who have been in Your Word and had a great summer are eager and ready to live for you and for those who honestly with an open heart shared that they struggled through the summer I pray that you just help them to be close you told us if we draw near to you that you'll draw near to us and we thank you for that promise and I pray that you'd help each one here to have just a great year to be consistent in their life and to walk with you and I do pray that tonight you'd open our hearts help us to learn all we can as we pray in the name of Jesus Amen. There's one thing I know for sure. There is not a doubt in my mind. There is not a question. And here it is. I know that all things work together for good to them that love God. How many say, Randall, I don't really hit a home run in this every time, but honestly, in my heart, I do love the Lord. Can I see your hands, please? Okay. All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow He did also predestinate to what? To be conformed to the image of His Son. To be just like Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favoreth God and man." This is God's goal for every single one of us. And God uses His Word. He'll use this university, the friends in your rooms, and your prayer groups to help you become just like Jesus Christ. But we do have a problem. It's part of the world that we live in. You didn't ask to be born in this world. You kind of came whether you liked it or not. I wish we didn't have to live in the wicked world we live in now. I do. I wish we could all live back in the days of Little House on the Prairie. All we'd have to deal with was like Nelly's attitude, you know? We don't live in that day. We live in a tough world and there's something that faces many of us and I call it the Peter Pan syndrome. Peter Pan from Jim Barry's play produced many movies and theater productions. Peter Pan is characterized by immaturity and the simple belief that he is beyond the norms of society. Two of the most common symptoms of a Peter Panaholic Number one, irresponsibility. Just not planning ahead. And number two, lack of life direction. Through teens and even twenties, not really knowing what I want to do with my life. There are some traits or those caught in the Peter Pan syndrome that rarely show up. Traits like assertiveness and confidence. Traits like decisiveness and determination. Strength of mind, body, endurance, self-sacrifice. You don't see these traits in those who are caught in this Peter Pan syndrome. Basically, Peter Pan said, I don't want to grow up. I kind of like the fun of being a kid. I mean, get a job, wear a suit, go to work every day. Isn't it more fun to chase ticking crocodiles? And there's a battle that goes on between maturity and immaturity. And we all will face it, especially at this time in life. There are different aspects of maturity that all of us must understand and we will face in life. There's a spiritual maturity, sufficient to lead your friends and someday your wife and children closer to the Lord. A personal maturity to be a responsible adult. There's an economic maturity sufficient to hold a job and handle funds and finances. A physical maturity to protect a family. There's a sexual maturity sufficient to wait until marriage. There's an ethical maturity sufficient to make responsible, wise decisions. Relational maturity, to know how to get along with other people, respect others. There's a verbal maturity, sufficient to communicate and articulate as a person should. A character maturity, to demonstrate that you're going to stand for right no matter who else does not stand for right. A biblical maturity, to be able to read the Word of God and understand it and allow it to impact your life. Well, Peter Pan obviously was a boy who refused to grow up. He didn't want to mature. And we all go through different phases in life, both physically and spiritually. There's the birth or infancy stage, okay? This is helping survival. Babies, what do they do? They eat, they sleep, and they do something with that which they have eaten, you know, and then they eat some more and sleep some more and do some more. That's it! And and little babies the only way they can survive is to scream and cry out Why does a baby cry because they'll die if they don't you know a two-month-old doesn't mom need a steak medium-rare They don't do that. Okay, and So there's that help me Then there's childhood Tell me so many questions. It's kind of like elementary kids or junior campers. I Why do birds fly? Why is the grass green? Why is the sky blue? Why is that lady so fat? All these questions that they ask. A lot of times you don't know how to answer, but it's tell me. They're constantly learning. Then there's the adolescence. Show me, okay? Okay, mom, dad, you've told me enough. Just show me what to do. I can like figure this out, all right? Just kind of teach me. Show me and I'll handle it from here. And then you crawl into the adulthood or maturity and that's follow me. The serving. The first three eyes are totally on self. Then as you mature, the eyes begin to get on others. Man, I'm all for mentoring. I think it's cool. But sometimes we wait so long to be mentored by so many. You seniors, there's some freshmen here that don't even know how to have consistent devotions. And you can show them. Yeah. I remember a senior came up to me when I was a freshman here. He said, Rand, I didn't know him. He said, God laid you on my heart. I want to meet with you once a week. I'm going to buy you some commentaries. I'm going to teach you how to study the Bible. My sophomore year, a different guy that I didn't even know came to me and said, Rand, God laid you on my heart. Would you pray with me? In essence, he was wanting to teach me how to pray every week for the whole year. And you can do that. Even you freshmen. There's teenagers back home. This past summer, maybe you dinked around and wasted your time when you could have helped somebody, like be closer to God. But we're looking around, waiting to be mentored, you know, and helped, and that's all good. And you want to line yourself up with godly men, godly ladies. But let's not just live our whole lives and help me, tell me, show me stage, okay? What is it like? living in this parenthesis of life between being a kid and an adult, okay? It's not an easy place to live. What's it like? What are some of the characteristics or thought processes of being a, kind of make this up, a kidult, okay? How do you deal with this? Well, first of all, there's a contentment to stay in a comfort zone. Avoid problems by seeking pleasures, often with an imbalanced use of your discretionary time. I don't want to be hassled! So let me have my, you know, Xbox 360, okay? I don't want to be bothered. Let me just see who's writing on my wall tonight. And very content just to stay right where you are, where everybody takes care of you. Those caught in this funky parenthesis are critical of the adult world they fear. Adults don't understand your high-tech world. Some of you, you can take your phone, one in each hand, and text the Gettysburg Address with both thumbs while talking. I've seen you do it. And then you give Dr. Bob a phone, say, I want you to text to your wife, hi. Let's see here. Where's the E? How do you get that one, you know? Sorry, Dr. Bob. And adults don't understand. How do we know we're critical? It's because of the high-tech world that we live in. You used to get away with gossip and talking down at others because it was never recorded. But now with the blog mentality and the P2P accounts and the email attacks, isn't it easy to be critical of that generation that you do not understand? And then they get critical of the generation they do not understand. Everybody runs around being critical of each other. And it's part of this immaturity. Some even get older and stay immature in that way. Those caught in this parenthesis commitment becomes non-existence. Commitment to a lifelong ministry. Hey, what are you going to do with your life? I don't know. You might try a church, you might try a mission field, or maybe you're teaching, and, I don't know, see if I like it. Instead of just saying, Lord, where do you want me to serve? It would take me ten years just to figure it out, and then ten more to kind of work my way into it, and commitment, even to like contracts. It's amazing now, you get contracts even at the Wilds, you know, we'll have everybody sign a contract, 250, 290 every summer, About two weeks before camp, we get like an email, oh sorry, something else came up, I can't come, and the contract is already signed, a commitment, non-existing commitment to marriage. You girls have been committed to marriage since second grade. And you guys, whoa, look around. There's some nice looking girls here. Date them, okay? You walk to Bob Jones University, it's like a candy shop. Everything looks sweet, but you can't touch anything. And I understand the fear of how can you get a job and support a wife and all that? But dude, you wait until you're like 30 or 40 until finally, you know, you start settling down this thing. Find yourself a good girl that loves the Lord and wants to serve with you. Meet her on Friday, get engaged on Saturday, get married on Sunday. Commitment to the Word of God. We're committed to what we like to do. But yet, you know in my life, most of you have heard me preach, and you know that constantly I get emails, or phone calls. Rand, I'm addicted to porn, I don't know what to do. So what do you try and do? Well, I get up and have my devotions, and I do. I spend my 12 minutes with God. Sorry. If you're addicted, you're going to have to spend about two hours with God every day. Yeah. You've got to get desperate to where you can totally renew your mind. It's the only way you ever put off the old and put on the new. Commitment to Christlikeness. Just to be like Christ. What do you want to be when you grow up? We're motivated by fear of maybe becoming what we dislike in the adult world. Motivated by friends. We just like to be around those who don't really push us, but those who make us feel comfortable. Sometimes we're motivated by fun, which is simply rewards without responsibility. Now, I'm all for fun, you know that. But your whole life is not just to like have fun and be entertained. Motivated by foolish thinking, oh, I'll catch up someday. It's not that easy. What does God's Word say about this transition that you guys are caught in right now? between adolescence and adulthood. I want you to look closely at this passage. This is what God gave the local church, which is God's institution to help us grow. He gave some apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the, say the next word please, perfecting or maturing of the saints for the work, not the play, but the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ, encouraging others, till we all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a, say it, perfect or mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." In other words, become just like Jesus Christ. That from this point on, henceforth, we'd be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, but speaking the truth in love, may, say it, grow up into Him in all things, which is ahead even Christ. Some of you have been home all summer, got little brothers and sisters that drive you insane. And you want to take a hold of their heads and say, look at me, will you please grow up? Some of you came to school and the last two days you got roommates. You want to say, look at me, will you please grow up? You girls walking across campus and look at these guys. Oh, they are like so immature. You know, you see that. You look around, try to see everybody who you think needs to grow up. You know what God says right here? He said, college student, I want you to grow up. I don't want you to waste your life anymore. I don't want you to be a little kid. I want you to grow. Little kids are carried about with every false teaching and false way, as long as it's shiny and pretty. But God wants us to grow. You know what Jesus did? He increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Jesus increased. Pro capto, to push against, to pound on until it keeps moving like wind against a sail. It's tough, it's hard work. Capto means to cut away at it, simply to be worked so hard you're so weary you don't even have any strength left. This is what Jesus did. And guess how old he was when he did it? He's like 12. Junior high. I love junior high. I call them pre-people. They're cool! 7th and 8th graders, when they come into the wilds, they go, Brother Rand! Brother Rand! They're all excited! They come back, 9th graders, Brother Rand! 10th graders, Brother Rand. 11th graders, Rand. 12th graders! It's like they transformed from, like, Tigger to Eeyore in six years, you know? Bouncing off the wall and everything is so cool then whatever Jesus at the junior higher He increased he grew He did not waste his teenage years And as I prayed for you guys ever since they asked me to speak for these services, which I wanted to say no I'm scared I started praying and Some of you have already wasted a lot of your teenage years. I don't want you to waste your 20s too. Don't wait until like you're 30. Then you grow up and say, oh, like I'm 30, I'm Christ-like. Don't waste these years. Jesus increased. How did He increase? He increased in wisdom. Sophia, good sense, sound judgment, discernment, practical wisdom, skillful. in life's choices. Instead of just having to ask somebody, you, because you've worked at this, you sought the principles of the Word of God, now all of a sudden there's a wisdom. You can make good decisions. Teen years into college, you're preparing your character to make the right choices about marriage and college and marriage and careers and marriage and finances and marriage and life. You want to make good choices. Wisdom is more than knowledge. You're probably one of the most knowledgeable generations that's ever been on earth. Really, at the tip of your fingertips. You can type and learn anything you want. Within seconds, you can. You can find out, you know, how to butcher a hog or build an igloo or roast a duck-billed platypus. You can do these things, you know. Lots of knowledge out there. And even as you come to college, And now, of course, you've reached the height of maturity in your intellect, yeah? Just be careful. Be careful that after a year or two, you don't assume that you know more than those guys that have poured their lives into you for like 30 years. And all of a sudden, they don't know anything anymore. Be careful. 1 Corinthians 8 tells us that certain kinds of knowledge puff up. But true love edifies, builds. If a man thinketh he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Remember the warning of Isaiah in chapter 5. Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. I'm not talking about knowledge. Wisdom is knowing the difference between right and wrong and behaving accordingly. Wisdom prepares for the future rather than waste a day away. It makes choices that build and that help you to grow and increase rather than just float or drift or entertain. Wisdom involves growing from Bible stories to Bible principles. And it is so easy to get trapped in this reverse legalism. Show me it in the Bible in black and white. Well, if you want to stay a baby, and you want me to chew your food up for you, okay. But you guys are in college. You're like way past that. And all these standards and the stuff we argue about, he says, show me in the Bible where it says I can't do it. Don't approach life so childish. Look what God says about this. For the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which is the first principles of the oracles of God, or like the ABCs of the Christian life. And are become such as have need of milk, not something you can sink your teeth into, of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness. God says he's a baby. But strong meat belongs to them that are full age, even to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let's go on to perfection, maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, and the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment. That list in chapter 6 are the oracles. Those are the simple things. And we still struggle with them. Why? Because we've reached the highest level of halo, but we've never studied the book of Ephesians word by word. That's why. We're knowledgeable, but we're not very wise. Here's a simple principle I get asked, Rand, what about fun stuff? Video games, Facebook, going to a concert, or watching a good movie, or hanging out with your friends at Starbucks, or whatever. What do you do? How do you handle this? Well, here's a principle for you, okay? I want to show you three passages that you can take a simple principle, and I'm not saying you all have to do this, but this is what I do. Here are three verses. Ready? Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and the host of them, and on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made. He, say the next word. rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day sanctified it because that in it he had say it rested from all his work which God created and made did he have to rest no he's God look at this passage remember the Sabbath day to keep a holy unique special one of a kind six days shalt thou say it labor and do all thy say it work but the seventh day is a Sabbath the Lord in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son daughter man servant maid servant cattle stranger in the gates For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all them in them is. And, say it, rested the seventh day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. One more passage says the same thing. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, he, say it, rested and was, say it, refreshed. This is what God did, okay? So He worked hard. He created the universe, okay? In six days. So if you just take a simple principle, why did He rest? I don't know, but He did. He left a principle, an example for us. So just suppose you take one of the seven days of the week, 24 hours. Of course, you got to sleep for eight and, you know, you got to eat for three and spend an hour getting ready or, well, some girls get ready for three and eat for one and the guys do the opposite, whatever it is there, but gives you about 12 hours, okay, just to chill, to relax, to watch a movie. Now some people like to keep that unique 12 for Saturday and just have that's my day off. But most of us study or work Saturdays and Sundays and so you kind of got to spread them out a little bit. It comes out to be about an hour and 45 minutes a day. Let's just say two hours a day. So if you want to take two hours at night and just chill and have some fun, spread it out. But you know what we do with our lives. You say, I want the two hours at night. In fact, I want five hours at night and all day Saturday. and all Sunday afternoon to entertain myself. And you have wasted your teenage years. I know you're good at the games, and you can text like wildfire, and you can go on your Facebook and sit for two hours and wait for someone to just maybe write on your wall, but you can't give God like five minutes? Could you imagine if you would have taken just one hour a night and dug in to God's Word? How far along you would have been? If you spend all your free time playing games instead of studying, you're not only wasting a lot of money, but you're wasting a lot of time. I'm not against games, but you've got to keep this in balance. Jesus increased in stature. Do you remember the awkwardness of being 12 and 13? You guys, you go to bed, you're like 4'6", you wake up, you're 6'4", you know? You don't know what to do with arms and legs, and you girls at that age, everything's changing inside and outside, and somebody says, how you doing? You know, your hormones are running, and you don't even know, you're smiling one minute and crying the next, and you don't know why. It's part of being junior high, you know? And so there's this conflict that goes on. Remember, Peter Panaholics lack traits of confidence and determination and strength and stamina and endurance. Oh, I'm so tired. You're young. Get your rest, eat properly and take care of yourself physically. Physical maturity involves exercising consistently. And you're going to be weary sitting in class. You better take care of yourself. Come on, guys, push-ups, pull-ups. Make the girls think you have more than a mosquito bite on that arm, okay? Go for a walk. You get tired? Don't just always take a nap, but go take care of yourself physically. Physical maturity involves eating moderately. You gotta be careful. Because some of the habits that you're building in life, they kind of carry through life, you know? I travel all the time. I'll be honest with you, I have a comfort food. It's the dollar menu at McDonald's. I mean, a hazelnut iced coffee and two of those $1 cheeseburgers. It's unbelievable. In fact, on a recent trip, my wife said, Rand, will you promise me, promise me you will not go to McDonald's. I said, OK, I promise. Wendy's has a great double stack, you know. Physical maturity involves establishing principles of moral and sexual purity. You're college students. There's a fire burning inside to be satisfied physically. It's part of the stage of life. You say, and Rand, my problem is I've got an imbalance of hormones. No, you don't. Some of you, you got some supersizing of your lust because of your internet and your entertainment. But all of us are going to battle the lust of the flesh. I have to counsel those who struggle with lust for men or for women, and every aspect of that you can understand. It's still lust. You're not different, you're not weird. It's what you've got to fight for, okay? You've got to fight to be strong, to battle this. It's a war. I remember a junior in high school, a girl, she went to public high school and she came to me, she said, Rand, they mocked me in my high school because I'm a virgin. I mean, I can be walking down the hall and a seventh grader will go by and go, hey, virgin. She said the other night after volleyball practice, I don't know why, but the girls were like on my case about this. And finally, I just, I shouldn't have got upset, but I did. And I just looked at them and I said, okay, stop. Whenever I want to become like you, I can. When you want to become like me, You can't. And I've counseled way too many, even from this institution, who go home at Christmas or summertime and make stupid, immature decisions. You be mature. You save yourself for that special person. Physical maturity involves establishing principles that will help determine how much time, effort, and thought is given to your appearance. You know, you're not here for a fashion show. Be careful. Okay? I want you to look good. You want to look good. Nobody wants to marry someone who looks like they ran through the ugly forest and never missed a branch, okay? But if you want to be mature in this, you better be careful! How much time, and how much money, and effort, and how I look! Okay? The world teaches, you know, if you don't look like Ken or Barbie, you're nothing! I used to take my GI Joe and beat up my sister's Ken. That was fun. But anyway... Boy, you gotta be careful on this one. What did Jesus look like when He was growing up? You say we have no idea. Yeah, we do. Just listen to Isaiah 53. Who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him, when he is young, as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." Ready? He has no form or comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Then it says he was rejected of men. Honestly, I'm not totally sure if this is talking about what he looked like, This was the Son of God. And you be beautiful on the inside. And you be mature in how you grow in stature. Jesus increased in favor with God. This gets a little tricky. This favor, this grace. You want God to smile on you, don't you? You want Him to be pleased with your life? Well, favor involves not just what we do, but what we are. Let not your good be bespoken of. The kingdom of God is not just rules and regulations, or meat and drink, but it's doing right, and having peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serves Christ is, say it with me, acceptable to God, and approved of men. And so you make sure that you allow the Spirit of God to keep that peace, and that joy, and that desire to do right. involves what you are on the inside. Increase with favor. Favor involves our acceptance of God's mercy and truth from His Word. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them upon thy neck. Write them on the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find, sayeth, favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. I hope that this year at school, something happens to help you fall in love with this book. Really. Because you can't base your life on anything else. Everything else is corrupted by our culture. It is. And again, we didn't ask for that to happen. You think about it. Our thinking is corrupt. Our dress styles, our music, everything is corrupted. But this is uncorruptible, okay? The Word of God never conforms. It never changes. You can take it to any country in our world. It speaks to hearts. And you better be committed to the Word of God. You better spend time with your God. Every day. I remember being here, how hard it is, because there's so much pressure. And finally I realized, I actually heard a message from Major Brooks, how you could raise your GPA one full letter grade. I thought, oh, I've got to go to this service, you know. And I struggled my first two years, C, C-, mostly. He talked about meditation and weightlifting with your mind. And I took my schedule and I wrote in during the class schedule where I'd spend time with God. If it was second hour on Tuesday and I had a test third hour, I would not study for that test during second hour. I gave that to God. That was my junior year. Wow, I was amazed. I thought, this is unbelievable. By my junior and senior year, I started making the Dean's List. Simple Bible meditation. There is a dynamic tension here. Because favor is a gift of God. We don't deserve it and can't earn it. To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted and a beloved in whom we have redemption through His blood. Say the next phrase with me. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Hey, do you know your sins are forgiven? Do you know for sure? God is a holy God. in a holy heaven, totally separate from sin. The wage of sin is what? And death in a way is separation. When I say death, you say separation. Death? Death. Well, if death is separation, then eternal death is eternal? From? And don't you dare think that you die and got this little bit of time to kind of clear up things. then it's eternally too late. The forgiveness of sins. Do you remember the time when you were like overwhelmed with your wickedness? Not just afraid of hell, okay? Because salvation is not a choice between heaven and hell. That's a consequence. It is a choice between Jesus Christ and your sin. You are saved from sin. That's the great separator. And those sins must be forgiven. Do you remember that day? You're overwhelmed with your wickedness and you cried out to God and you say, I know Jesus died for me and I trust him and him alone. What a wonderful day. I led a kid to the Lord in Brevard, 15, totally unchurched. Once he understood the gospel, I said, you want to get saved? He said, yeah. I said, why don't you pray and accept the Lord? He said, I don't know how. So I walked him, talked him through it. He said, OK. He crossed his arms, closed his eyes, put his head up and said, God, if anybody needs to be saved, I do. And he went ahead and prayed and accepted the Lord. But when he got done, he wasn't raised like most here. He didn't know you're supposed to say, in Jesus' name, amen, or as we pray, in the name of Jesus. So he just sat there, arms crossed, eyes closed, head up. I looked up to see if he was done. After the longest time, he went like this. Well, thank you, and looked at me. When was the last time, maybe after a great service or a special time of devotions with God, you stopped and you said, God, thank you. Thank you for saving me. You might be here and say, Rand, I've never been able to say thank you. Then you're at a great place because you've got people praying for you. You probably have somebody sitting near you that would love to take the Word of God. and help you know your sins are forgiven. Jesus increased in favor with man. This is the last aspect that we look at in becoming like Christ. What does the Word of God say about this? Well, all through Scripture, as we want to have an impact on others, guys, I encourage you to act and think like a gentleman. Ladies, act and think like a lady. Now what I'm about to say is not fun. I don't know who's going to deal with it. If a circus barker came in here and said, ladies and gentlemen, how many of us could stand up? Men be leader-like. Peter Pan, though brave, clever, and leader-like, was a conceited show-off, self-absorbed, heartless. Be a gentleman. Intelligently. Be assertive. Be confident. Physically. Be manly. Energetic. Strength. Stamina. Spiritually. Be decisive. Discerning. Talk about your Lord. Yeah. Share with your roommates what you're getting from your devotions. It's okay. Don't walk around with these Cro-Magnon grunts and groans, and be a man, talk so people can hear you and understand you. Socially, be unselfish, be a self-sacrificing leader. Be a man. Girls, be a lady. Intelligently, confident, purposeful, physically ladylike, pure, modest, spiritually godly, wise counselor. Does anyone ever come to you and ask for some help? Because they're struggling in their walk with God. Remember my son Josh went to public high school, he heard a ruckus in the cafeteria. He looks over, two guys are dragging another boy. Drug him right over to Josh, plopped him down, said, Josh, he doesn't believe in God, you need to talk to him. Talk about a counseling opportunity, yeah. So if there's somebody on this campus that does not know God, Would they be brought to you? You have that kind of testimony. There's one other thing I want to share with you here. You've got to avoid the gender-blender society. I mean, to be Christ-like in this world today, it's not an easy thing. And what we see so often in our society hopefully not in our Christian colleges, but is kind of the effeminization of our guys? It's just the way the world's been teaching you. As Christians, we don't want to be this way. Look what God says, Help, Lord, the godly man ceaseth. I know a lot of girls in their mid to late twenties who love God, They're beautiful girls. They've got great personalities. They're sweet as can be. And they cannot find a godly guy. No offense, guys, but you've been dinking around, playing games, and goofing off so long. The girls like are seven, ten years ahead of you, spiritually, maturity-wise. And you don't want to continue living like that. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it's a shame to him, but if a woman have long hair, it's glory to her if her hair is recovering? And this doesn't explain how long is long and short is short. That's not my thought here. But there is a difference. And God made that difference. And if you have to look three or four times to figure out what it is. I was walking through Haywood Mall with my daughter, and even the mannequins are like Metro, you know? I don't know what they are. You don't want to live like that. Watch you stand fast in the face. Quit you like men. A very unusual way to say, act like a man. Be strong. But let all things be done with love. Guys, be men. Be men for God. Loving, leading men. Don't be caught up in that world that's so prevalent out there. One year while I was a student, I was a prayer captain and we had a boy in our prayer group that didn't have a dad or any brothers. And honestly, he acted like a girl. He walked like a girl and talked like a girl and carried his books like a girl. So I pulled him, I don't want to say his name, let's call him, I don't know, Stephen. I said, Stephen, the guys are making fun of you and I want to help you. You're my friend. I know you love the Lord. but you walk and talk and act like a girl." I know, Brother Rand, I just don't want this. You know, I said, I want to help you. Do you really want help? He said, yes, I do. Okay, okay. Here's what we're going to do. And I got all the guys in the prayer group together, really, and I said, okay, Stephen wants some help here, and we're going to help him. And any time we see you talk like a girl or walk like a girl or carry your books like a girl, he's given us permission to punch him in the right arm one time. Boom! You know, just like that. And so I walked out the next morning, he's in the hall, he goes, hi brother, and BOOM! I got him, you know? He's walking across campus carrying his books and walking with his feet in a straight line, BOOM! We get him again! After just two or three weeks, I'd say, Steven ROCK! He did, he changed! Just showing a little love, a little help! And guys, you really can change. Actually, you can change very quickly by the grace of God. Because God puts within you, not only the power, but the desires. God works in you both the will and the do. His good pleasure. God will do that. Why are you here? You're Bob Jones University. You're weird. People look at you like, why are you here and going to this? Because the grace of God put that desire within your heart to go and learn more about God in his words so you can go out and serve him. That's God's grace. You'd be thankful for it. God wants to work in our hearts and use us to be strong men who are not ashamed to be conservative Christians in a world that's literally going out of control. So you have a choice. to be like Jesus or to be like Peter Pan. You see, Peter Pan ran away from the hardships of life. But Jesus Christ willingly accepted the hardships for us. Peter Pan selfishly fulfilled his own fantasies. He didn't want to mature and grow. He wanted to stay in Never-Never Land that will never, never be. Jesus Christ sacrificially fulfilled his father's will. Peter Pan refused to grow. He wanted to stay a boy. Jesus refused to stay a boy. He became a man that died on the cross for you and me, so we can become just like Him. Don't waste your college year. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your precious Word. Thank you for the simplicity of Luke 2.52. Lord, you sent Jesus to give us an example how we should never be content with mediocrity. But we need to grow, to change. By your Spirit, through your words, you have encouraged our hearts tonight not to waste our time this year, but to leave this place much closer to you, much stronger in our faith. I pray that you would not allow one student here to waste this year.