In my introduction last week, I said that you could not be young twice and that both God and the devil wanted to catch you in your youth. If you yield to God, you will be discipled to fulfill the purpose of God for your life; if you submit to the devil, he will disciple you for evil and will frustrate the purpose of God for your life. May God’s purpose for your life not be destroyed in Jesus name.
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Youths are often deceived to think that they must first live their lives to do the wrong things, which they call enjoying themselves, and later come back to do more serious things when they advance in age. What a lie of the devil! Whatever you are going to become in life, you are already becoming gradually. So you had better take your life seriously.?
If Hophni and Phinehas thought they would have a chance to change later in life, they were wrong. They died same day with their father, Eli, because they lived an ungodly and wayward life. It is not everyone that lives long enough to change for the better. The devil is full of evil! He catches many people young, wastes their lives, kills them before they take time to repent and drags them to hell fire. You don’t have to go the wrong way first before going the right way! God loves you and has a great plan for your life. Don’t let satan pervert your destiny and abbreviate your life. He has done that to a lot of youths with great destinies.
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Lam 1:9 says concerning Jerusalem, “Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. ‘O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy is exalted!’”(NKJV). Did you see what befell Jerusalem because of her ungodly life? That is what happens to those who despise their destinies. Such people always experience an awesome fall with no one to comfort them, not even their partners in sin. I pray that this will not be your portion in Jesus name. If you have been living your life without respect for your destiny, I pray that you will repent today and give your life to Jesus and let him begin to direct your life henceforth. Beware of uncleanness in your skirt or in your trousers!
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As earlier stated, youths are important to God and are also important to the devil, just as youths are important to a nation, because they are the builders and the future of a nation. If they go wrong, the future is bleak ?and hopeless. Hear this: That mighty preacher of several years past, Jonathan Edward (1703-1758) who preached what has been described as the most powerful sermon ever preached, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” – a message which caused his congregation to rise weeping and moaning from their seats – was five years old when he was converted. At age 33, Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian, built the largest church in Europe. Also, at 33, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in America. George Westinghouse was only 19 years old when he made his first invention, the rotary steam engine. He was 21 when he invented a “car replacer”, a device to guide derailed railroad cars back onto the tracks and a reversible frog, a device used with a railroad switch to guide trains onto one of two tracks. And at 22, he invented a railroad braking system using compressed air.?
?Isaac Newton was 24 years old when he formulated the law of gravitation. Charles Dickens was 25 when he wrote that popular book, Oliver Twist. Think about these people.?
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What shall be said of you? That you were a drug addict at 15, a prostitute at 18 or a convict at 20? Shall it be said of you that you impregnated four girls as a teenager, or that you were a single mother at 2, having three children from three different men? ?God forbid!?
Think about how you are living your life today while others are investing their youth fulness in God’s purpose for their lives. Are you living for pleasure standing before the mirror for hours celebrating your beauty, intoxicated with fashion and blinded by vanity? God’s servant, T.L Osborn said, “You see no one is too old and no one is too young. I was saved at the age of 12. I became a preacher at the age of 18. I was a missionary in India at the age of 21.” Did you see that? Who tells you that you must first waste your life before you begin to find your way back to God much later in life? Today is your day. The best part of your life is now. Don’t postpone living. Don’t continue to sow seeds of regrets. That sin you say you are enjoying now will rob you of real enjoyment later in life.
God’s servant, Kenneth Hagin, many years before he went to be with the Lord, was quoted as saying: “Whatever God has called you to do he has not changed his mind about it, one day, you will have to give account of whatever you did with that calling.” The Bible says, “It is appointed unto man to die once and after this judgement” (Heb 9:27).
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Hear this warning from the wisest man that ever lived, King Solomon, a man who should know better because he lived for pleasure at the highest level, a life of no control but later came back to his senses. “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your creator. Honour him in your youth before you grow old and no longer enjoy living. It will be too late then to remember him, when the light of the sun and moon and stars is dim to your old eyes, and there is no silver lining left among the clouds. Your limbs will tremble with age, and your strong legs will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to do their work, and you will be blind, too. And when your teeth are gone, keep your lips tightly closed when you eat! Even the chirping of birds will wake you up. But you yourself will be deaf and tuneless, with a quavering voice. You will be afraid of heights and of falling, white-haired and withered, dragging along without any sexual desire. You will be standing at death’s door. And as you near your everlasting home, the mourners will walk along the streets. Yes, remember your creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. ‘All is meaningless,’ says the teacher, ‘utterly meaningless.” (Eccl 12:1-8 NLT). Think about that!?
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Hear another counsel from Solomon: “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgement. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity” (Eccl 11:9-10 NKJV). Did you understand that? You may do whatever you like in the name of enjoying yourself but remember, you will face God’s judgement one day. Therefore avoid evil and whatever that would turn your childhood and youth to vanity. Don’t live for pleasure; live for your destiny. Anyone who lives in pleasure is dead while he or she lives” (1 Tim 5:6).
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No matter how far you have gone away from your maker, you can return today. Today is your day of salvation. (2 Cor. 6:2). No matter how deep you have sunk in the miry clay of sin, you can cry unto the Lord today. He will save you. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). The Lord is near to all who call upon him (Psalm 145:18). Why not call upon him now while he is near? (Isaiah 55:6)?
Jesus will not reject you if you come to him today. He says, “All that the father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37 KJV). Come to Jesus today and allow him to teach you how to truly maximise your youth.?
I believe that God has spoken to you already. What decision are you going to make? Don’t postpone that decision. Please join me again next week for the third part of this message.?