The Cultural Wasteland

You can make your way back to your seats. Amen. Amen. What a delight it is to be here, man. This worship team, haven't they done awesome? Amen.

Making it easy on the preacher to do their job. The end of 1 Chronicles, the Bible says that God gives David this amazing arsenal of people to do the work of the Lord. And he and he gives three families, particularly those that will prophesy with hearts. Imagine that. Prophesy with hearts. Amen.

Turn to your neighbor. Tell you how many hours of sleep you get last night. Yeah, I feel a witness. You'll forgive me. The media team worked really, really hard. They tried to get things up and running, but you'll forgive me.

I'm going to operate unplugged today. I was going to give you some wonderful slides. I'm going to give you everybody say seven points. I'm going to give you seven points. We're going to look at truth number two. We talked about yesterday the battle of ideas.

Today I want to talk about your life of obedience, but I want to I want to frame it well. And I I want to show you the negative so that you can understand the positive. I would call this the cultural wasteland. The cultural wasteland. And I want you to see your mission field. I want you to see what God wants to do for your life and then through your life.

And if I subtitled it, it might be the results or the fruit of sin. Brother Shaw didn't know last night where I was headed. And of course, we haven't compared notes at all, which has been fun.

I'm going to go to Proverbs 4:18 and 19. These are two of my my favorite verses in the Bible. That wise man of the Old Testament is inspired by the spirit of God to lay out a truth that we can understand at a deep level. And he says the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more until that perfect day. That means the more that you learn to walk in God's word, the more you give your life to obedience, the more you surrender, as Jesus said, when you lose your life, that's when you find it. And your understanding and your life is like more and more light, it gets better.

As the oldtimes used to say, as the days go by, I understand more and more as I serve the Lord. And then I want to key in on the contrast of that in verse 19. The way of the wicked, everybody say the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. I don't know if you highlight in your Bible. I think you should highlight those two verses and especially verse 19, maybe even write in your Bible if you write this is my mission field.

I I want to encourage you that there are really good people in the world that are trapped in systems like we talked about yesterday. And I am going to try to take off and land fast. But I want to paint the picture clearly because there are people trying to have good lives. There are young people. There are even young adults. There are even families that are trying to have good families.

They're trying to have good marriages. They're trying to live life as a teenager in a way that that makes sense of existence. They're trying to find their own meaning. But the Bible says it's like stumbling around in darkness and they don't even know what they're tripping over. So, I'm going to give you seven points to help unfold some understanding in your mind so again that God can use you. And tomorrow, we're going to key in on what the ministry of reconciliation looks like.

You guys all right? All right.

Point number one, I want to tell you there is a contrast of paths. The Bible calls it this these two different ways, these two different paths. There is a bright path marked by vision and insight and blessing. And then there is a path of darkness. The Hebrew is strong. It's deep darkness filled with traps and obstacles and stumbling and failing.

Point number two, there are always two paths that beckon for our life. Don't get excited. Some points are longer than others. I I I love saying this at every every youth camp that I get a chance where I feel like the Lord will let me slip it in. I I want to create some something in your spirit. I want to put a little bit of a a godly revolution on the inside of you.

Because when a Viacom producer says, "We don't market to this generation, we own this generation." I wish there were some young people that would look back at the culture and say, "You don't own me. You don't dictate my life. You don't get to define what my definitions are. I know who I'm called to be. What this generation needs is somebody who understands who they are in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they can go out and make a difference.

You don't own me. But the two paths are filled with lies and truth. And the problem with lies is they deceive. And and Proverbs is is a beautiful passage. And I would a book I would just caution you, maybe even challenge you, exhort you to read that book because when you begin to study Proverbs, the Bible shows us there really are three types of people and only three types of people. There are wise people.

Wise people are those that embrace the fear of the Lord. Now, I don't have time to deal with it in detail. I do understand that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. But God is not waiting with the 10 lb sledgehammer to knock you upside the head every time you step out of line. He has no problem with correction. How many have you ever been chasing by the Lord?

My My mom is from East Tennessee. I didn't mean to catch a whooping. I don't even know what that is. I didn't try to chase it down, but I caught a lot of whoopins and and and I know what that means. But they love my mother loved me and wanted me to be a man that could other people could stand to be around. I wasn't so filled with selfishness and obnoxious attitudes and things that would destroy my relationships with other people that Mama Killmon didn't have no problem saying, "Son, come here.

Let me adjust your attitude." Right? You know, the the Bible says that if you if you Well, I'll try not to be too pointed, but you know, we say things like spare the rod and foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod rod will drive it far from him. I don't believe in abuse, but my mama believed in that verse and and she ingrained it on me. I mean, in me. I needed some attitude adjustment. And my mama helped me because she wanted me to be wise.

And wise people understand they can be corrected. If you can be corrected, you can be protected. If you can be guided, you can be get you can be you can be got to the blessing that God intends. The fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God in that sense. It's something like this. It's being afraid to operate your life outside of God's wisdom.

It's understanding that I don't have to limit my life to the best that I can come up with. I have embraced the fear of the Lord and there is no place in life that I want to operate operate outside of the direction of God. I need the direction of the Lord. I can wreck my life fast. I can wreck my marriage fast. I can rel I can wreck my relationship with my child very quickly.

But if I can embrace the fear of the Lord and say, "Help me to be the type of man you want me to be. Help me to be the type of husband you want me to be. Help me to be the type of father only you can provide. Then I can find in the fear of the Lord the thing that God would accomplish in my life." That is the wise. And then there is the fool. We don't have time to deal with it, but it's not about diminished capacity.

That is not what the Bible is talking about the the fool. The fool is someone who rejects the fear of God and follows their own path. And then the Bible gives us that third category, the simple. That simply means it's not simple t. Turn to your neighbor say not simple t. Some of y'all are saying other things.

I thought I might get that. All right. It's not simple tongue. It's the simple. It means the uninstructed. And what you have to understand is the wise way and the foolish way is always beckoning you to their path.

But can I tell you there is a broadway and there is a narrow way. There are many that go in the Broadway. You don't have to work hard. Jesus says in Matthew to go into the broadway. You just go in there at. But you got to you got to seek.

You got to find the narrow way. But listen, if you live your life like nobody else, you're going to get the results that only a few people get because they have found the narrow way and they have a Lord that's going to lead them to blessing. And I'm going to try to stay on track today that the Bible that particularly the book of Proverbs assumes some things that your character is constantly being shaped. And just because I'm older than you doesn't mean that there's not still things that God is working in my life and in my heart and in my desires. And your character is being shaped by what? Not just by the official teachers that we recognize.

Not just your pastor, not just your youth leader. Not just your parents if they're in church, but friends shape character. Acquaintances shape character. The Bible is clear that the threat of punishment can shape character. And the allure of motives and desires all beckon us to a road. And that's why you got to be careful.

Which one of these things am I being tempted down? And I'm going to give the statement to you again. You cannot cut yourself and not bleed. And when you get on a path of disobedience, what you need to understand is there are moral things that you can do, but they will damage your heart and they will damage your life. And the reason God is against sin is not because he's trying to protect you from fun. He's trying to con he's trying to get you on a safe road and a protected road and a road where you can lay down on your bed at night with peace.

Point number three, you don't need the point is you don't need to just see choices, but point number three, you need to know the result of choices. What does that mean, brother Killmon? You need to see the fruit of a life, the fruit of sin. And I said it yesterday. Let me repeat today. Even well-meaning ideas can end bad.

I'm going to reiterate that ideas have consequences. They form our belief. They shape our convictions and then solidify into our everyday habits and they coalesce into a direction, a destiny and a destination. Number four. The results are real and and even the world admits this. I think it's fascinating.

And I'm going to try not to be too strong today, but there was a man. He was a playwright. His name is Samuel Beckett. And he wrote a play on the back of another hand bill of another play that they were doing. It was written as a joke and the entire play was 25 seconds long and it was called the breath. The play would open and and and they would hear a scream.

The curtains would open. You would hear a scream, a heartbeat, and there was nothing but a bunch of garbage on stage. The heartbeat would be pumping through the speakers and then all of a sudden there's another scream and the curtain would drop and that's it. It was 25 seconds long. Now of all of Samuel Beckett's plays that he wrote, he never dreamed that this would be the most successful. The play has been performed over 1300 times to over 35 million people.

And what is the message of Samuel Beckett the pleasure monging monger and and the person who has not acknowledged God in his life? He's saying life begins with a scream of pain and ends with a scream of pain and there's mostly garbage in between. I'm going to tell you today there is more from the Lord Jesus Christ for your life than the nonsense that's out there in the world. And when so many people say all of my life can be summed up in that 25-second play, what you need to realize is the lies of the world will never satisfy the longing of the heart. The lies of the world will never give meaning and purpose and guidance and happiness and contentment. It's why the apostle James is very clear in James chapter 1, verse 15 that when then when lust hath conceived what does it do?

It bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished can look good in the short run. It can look good in the in the in the first initial stages. I I wish I could pass the mic around this morning. I can't do this. But some of you first generation young people could tell some of your peers in here that are being tempted by the lies in the movies and the lies on the screens and the lies on the on social media that this will give you happiness. Some of you could say drugs will not bless you.

Partying will not bless you. Nights where you can't remember what you were involved in will not bless you. You will re you will wi risk deep in your heart. I had a delete button on my brain and I could get rid of all of these things I've seen and said and done. But I'm going to tell you some of you could say that promise out there is not going to fulfill. It's the pathway of lies that end in death.

Point number five. I'm going to I'm going to show you the path of foolishness. That beckons.

Point number five, I'm going to call it the purpose temptation. And this is for you ladies. It's the purpose temptation. The lies and the ideas that are trying to suck you down a lifestyle. Here's what they would say. Here's the lie that the only purpose in life you have is the man manipulation of somehow image.

I I wish I could play I I had a little video to pop up. I understand it's not the media team's fault, but you owe it to yourself with your parents' permission to go on and look at the Dove commercial called the reverse selfie. Or you have a little girl, you have this picture that's put online and it looks like some a mid20s adult woman and then and then they dial all of the manipulation back, all of the airbrushing, all of the all of the things that they do to to cute up the picture. And then you see her painting her lips and you see her putting on all of this jewelry. Why? Because the world has told her she's not beautiful.

But I can sell you what you need to be beautiful. The number one desire in a woman is the affirmation of beauty. And what you need to do is save that for your husband. Marriage is a great creep filter. It will run off every abuser. It will run off every man in your life that doesn't want to make a commitment.

That's why you got to live holy. You got to say, "I am not going to attract bad, abusive users. I'm going to wait for the Lord to put me on the path of blessing. I'm going to wait for the Lord to bring a man of God into my life. I I I have a burden for this generation and I know Brother Shaw named it last night that more young ladies are bending away from church through feminism. And I just pray that somehow in your own heart that you will give your pastor and your youth leaders, perhaps even your godly parents enough voice to stay as strong as dove.

When they look at the end of that commercial and there's that little girl in her bedroom with her pimple and everything and she's made herself up and and what is she going to do? She's never going to leave that room. Why? Because she can't even match the image that she got so many likes on on social media. Can I just tell you maybe the best thing you could do for your own peace in your heart is turn social media off for a while and say, "God, help me really find the understanding that you love me the way I am. You created me the way I am, and I don't need somebody coming along selling me something.

Those are lies bent on your manipulation at your deepest fundamental need as a woman. You need to see through the lies of the age. If you don't believe me, please reach out to your parents, your leadership, and understand and look at the first year college girls rates of suicide and cutting and anorexia and bulimia. Why? Because shame and sin, shame and sin go together. And and when you look at that false type of imagery that you embrace, you cannot participate in some things and it not afflict your conscience because you're created in the image of God.

And you know there's some things you shouldn't do. And when you cut yourself, you will bleed. Can I just tell you there was a lot of people out there, a lot of young ladies that need godly voices. They don't need the manipulation voices. You have the voice to beckon them to the path of life. I was looking at a a couple of I'll just give you a couple of things.

There was a not that I normally read this magazine, a gq magazine. Brother Gilame was interviewing a Victoria Secrets model. You know, you come on a Wednesday night or you haven't slept in a while. At least better make it interesting. They were interviewing a Victoria Secrets model, the icon of beauty in our day. And and in gq magazine, the lady being interviewed and I was reading a an a book by a feminist which was fascinating to me that some of the greatest arguments for holiness is feminism.

Listen, I want to say it one more time. Young person, can you give your pastor enough power in your life to speak as strong as feminism? And Danielle Kittinden shows in her book called why happiness eludes the modern woman and not as a Christian but as a feminist shows in this interview with this Victoria Secrets model. She says everything about me is fake. Everything about me is surgically altered or enhanced. At the end of the article she says even my heart is fake.

What was she saying? If people knew the real me they wouldn't love me. There are broken women that have been lied to and they're they're being torn down a pathway of sin that's destroying their lives. Can you get enough understanding on the inside of you to protect your own heart and then be used by God to rescue people from the clutches of the lies of sin? I'm telling you, God's got a role for you. God's got an understanding he wants to put inside your life so that you can bless.

Manipulation of image. How about the manipulation of praise and power? That's your only purpose. It's like the ted talk with Cameron Russell, a model. The title is looks aren't everything. And believe me, I'm a model.

And and she begins to talk about the history of of what makes a model in America. And I don't have time to deal with it in detail. We I spend 16 weeks on holiness in Indiana Bible College about this type of manipulation. And I I don't have time to give you 16 weeks today, but I will tell you this much. She she shows unequivocally that the definition of beauty in America is tall, thin, and white. And if you look at enough, you forgive me, gentlemen, but I'm going to run at you in a moment.

But if you keep consuming terrible things, you'll be manipulated by the idea of beauty. And you will not have a woman of God. You'll have a wallflower. And if she likes to dress for attention, your problem is is you're going to be married to a woman that likes to dress for attention. And good looks good luck staying married to a woman who likes to dress for attention. What you need is a woman of God who knows who she is in God so that your marriage can be saved.

It's like reading the biography of Lucille Ball, that feminist, the first kind of feminist success and and and and she told her second husband because she got a divorce from her first husband. She was doing laundry and they they were really wealthy and and and and she said, "Why?" He said, "Honey, why are you doing what we can pay to have someone do?" She said, "Look, I just want to do something normal. Let me do something normal. And and why did she keep the Lucille Ball show going so long? She says in her biography, I just wanted a place where my husband and my kids loved me. Why?

Because the other place was a lie. What she was satisfying for was the lie on the screen. Why? Because the lies of feminism robbed her from meaning in her life. And I understand, but you're going to have to resist this culture and understand that you're made in the image of God. Yes, you have a value system.

You are a woman. And if you don't embrace the way that God's made you, you're going to live incomplete, maybe for the majority of your life until you get to 60 and all you have is a bunch of cats and pictures of your breakfast. If you say things like, "I don't need a man," you need to rebuke that lie. That's a lie of feminism. Listen, I'm trying to help you, man. I wish I had time.

Jesus, I've just opened up so many cans of worm. I'm going to have to leave it. Brother Gillian, clean up. But, Brother Gillian, the the the Brad Wilcox wrote a book called Get Married. Incredible book. He says this that the happiest people in America, the people with the most money at the end of their life, the most content are people that get married.

He says, "I'm at the University of Virginia and I'm looking around at all these students and they're all claiming all these liberal. We're this and this and this and this," he said. And then I started asking him questions. Okay? If you got a girl pregnant, gentlemen, or if you got pregnant outside of wedlock and you went home, would your parents be disappointed? I'm not saying if they're proabortion and all that.

I'm not saying that, but would they be disappointed? The vast majority of them said yes. He said, "How many of you come from an intact home? How many of you come from a divorce home? How many of you come from an alternative lifestyle of parenting?" And the vast majority of them do not. Why?

Because they say they embrace one value system, but they live by another. And he said on the University of Virginia campus, and what I'm going to say is it's the Genesis model that actually brings blessing. It's not the lies of the false world. You hear me? If you want contentment, if you want blessing, God is not hiding it. He's saying, "What I've laid out in my word will get you to a place the world and the lies cannot get you to." It's like listening to Jean Kilbourne's documentary called Killing Us Softly.

It's a Cambridge documentary again, another feminist who studied marketing on women and the the effect of the psychology on women for 40 years. And she says it is all manipulation. It ends in all sorts of chaos. I'm going to say it one more time. Are you going to let the world define you? Or will you see the fruit of sin that even the world acknowledges and say, "I want to be on the pathway of blessing." Gentlemen, say our turn.

What is the path of foolishness that beckons men in our culture? I would call it point number six, the purpose of void. It's the lies and the ideas in our culture where you need to sit down and shut up because you've had power too long. But you cannot advocate. You cannot dismiss your accountability. You cannot forsake your role that God calls you to to lead and your family not suffer.

Your life is built for more than play. You hear me? God has a role for you in this culture. God has a necessary role for you as a man. And you need to resist every lie in the culture to fulfill it. If you don't, this is what it looks like.

The manipulation of pleasure. That's your purpose. Nothing else. You can become a red pill man. Not working so good for Andrew Tate, is it? Because you can't cut yourself and not bleed.

There are 110 million Americans with a sexually transmitted disease. Pleasure is not going to serve you. Okay. How about how about the mecca of liberalism? Brother Killmon, since the 1980s, the state of California has has started 23 prisons and one university. If liberalism works, if the lies for young men work, why doesn't it work?

Jesus said, "By your fruits, you will know them." When you look at the lies of what they're saying, don't let that preacher, don't let your youth pastor, don't let your parents tell you that you need discipline in your life. You embrace pleasure. You do whatever you want to do. And then we're going to lock you up to the tune of 23 to one. You got to resist the lies. Hear me.

There are a lot of young men that need the message you have because the message out there is destroying them. I I'll prove it to you. I I think it's fascinating. Let me quote quote Warren Ferrell. He's got a book called The Boy Crisis in America. He talked to two presidential administrations.

He talked to the President Obama. He talked to President Trump. Neither one of them wanted to deal with the reality because it was too hot to deal with because of feminism. Forgive me, ladies. What do you mean, brother Kilmer? That that the loss of purpose of men and husbands and fathers and the loss of that that fundamental need of being a protector and a provider and only being about pleasure.

What is it resulted in? That at the height of the depression, that time when America was going bankrupt, 154 male suicides existed alongside 100 female suicides. That's about one and a half times the rate. But in a successful and good economy in 2015, suicide among young men were three and a half more times than women. This is not a financial problem. You know where the greatest number of of of suicides are inside of thei United States?

Silicon Valley. The greatest concentration of wealth in America is not saving those kids. You hear me? It's not a money problem. It's not a poverty problem. It's a soul problem.

It is a purpose problem. It's a finding a direction for my life problem. And you'll forgive me for my pointedness today, but young white boys are committing suicide. Minority boys about one-third of the rate. And young black boys are murdering each other. And if we don't start talking about it, who's going to talk about it?

If the church can't speak to your generation, I pray that you're not so careful you can't speak. Now, I'm gonna be really strong today. This is Don't put this on the youth committee. Put it on me. Why do we say things like black lives matter? Brother, why do we say I'm picking on you right on front row.

Do black lives matter? Of course, I don't believe in social Marxism, but why don't we say boys lives matter? Because it's our boys that are shooters. Our mass shooters. It's our boys committing suicide at the rate of four to one in our culture. Our boys are dying right now all over the world and nobody wants to deal with it.

I'm going to tell you, you got to embrace your calling, young man. You got to get out from you, Forgive me. You got to get out from behind the the games long enough to engage your peers. Maybe you do need to start a P7 because there are hurting young men on your campus that may die in the short future. And God needs somebody with understanding to call them off of the pathway that leads to death onto the pathway that leads to life. I I I try to I try to keep a good attitude, but when people say things like this, where where are all the boys on our mission field?

Where are all the boys on our mission trip? Let me help you, sir. They're dying. They're dead. What are you doing about it? We have a message somehow that's strong enough to pull young men out of the problems of the culture.

We got to get them on a different path.

Number seven, I wish I had time. The rates of mass shootings have tripled since 2011. To mystifying issues is to misprescribe the cure. And I'm going to say it one more time. Why is it my my son and I, Brother Gillain, and I'm trying to move on. My son and I were at Cedar Point.

I hope this doesn't offend anybody. We love coasters. A little bit of an adrenaline junkie. If you want to go bungee jumping, let me know. But I I I was walking with my son and we were at Cedar Point and we were having a father-son trip together and it was a blast. We had a good time.

But there's a a young man walking down the street in front of us, the the pathway in front of us. Brother Shaw's he's got on these cute little tenny shoes, tenny bopper shoes and he's got on like ankle socks and a mini skirt and he's got on a a halter kind of half kind of cut top midriff with a he has certain apparati man shouldn't have. He has his cute little backpack on his pack and and he's got a beard and he's walking down the pathway and it was an it was an education in sociology for me because as I'm walking and we're we're in a a place in of amusement kind of a cross-section of America and and I'm watching some people are going by and they're nervous and they're ducking their head and they're kind of looking away and other people are smiling and they're firming and and other people are snarling their nose and even some like a group of them walk by and then I hear the laugh and the derissive comment. Are making fun and all I can think of in front of me is it's 50%. It's 50%. It's about a coin toss whether or not he's going to commit suicide.

Can anyone love him out of that pain? Can anyone love him out of misdef ugly? Men have been in charge of most of the pain in the world. When the opposite is true, are there bad men? Yes. But the answer is not weak men.

The answer is godly men. And men of understanding and character and strength who can come alongside that young man and say, "God has purpose for you. We want you in our youth group. We want you to come to church with us. God has something more for you. If the world wants them, do you want them?

If hell wants them, do you want them? You got to want them. Please come up and play so I can point number seven. Sin has stages. One of my favorite writers and thinkers said, "As you travel down the road of sin, no one stays on the same level of sin." Hear me. See, this is this is it.

Some of you ladies are at a crossroad. Because I've said some things that maybe even offended you and you have to decide am I going to submit to God or am I going to go my own path and the challenge is for you young men is do do I really start embracing my responsibility to give up pleasure do I step up and serve or do I stay comfortable because the world will let me give my life to pleasure for the rest of my But here's what happens. Nobody stays on a path stationary. You're always progressing. And when you run from the call of God, you have to run further into sin. Nobody stays on a level of evil.

That road always goes down because you have to run from the voice of God every time he pulls on your heart to say, "Give up that value. Give up that thing. I know. I know. I know you want permission, but I'm trying to protect you. I have a future.

I have something precious that you need to learn to protect in every tugging of our heart. If we run from the voice of God, the problem is Budziszewski says we have to become more wicked and more stupid. More wicked because we went further into sin and more stupid because we have to lie about our worsening condition. Some of you already have friends that have left the youth and their life has not panned out the way they thought it would. The question is, can you be strong enough to stay on your road and then help others find it? Listen, I feel the touch of the Lord in here.

I'm I'm going to I'm going to land. I really feel like I need to share this. I'm going to give you five steps of participating in sin. Number one, participation. It's where you sin. Second is justification.

Where you have to get into self-p protection and self delusion and justify what you're doing. Number three, you can't stay with justification. You got to go from participation to justification to advocation. Then you begin to rationalize and become an advocate of your lifestyle. Why? Because you're running further from what you know to be true.

But then step four, annihilation. You have to destroy all opposition because it afflicts your conscience. You have to run from your parents. You have to run from your church. You have to change friends. Then that last step, self-p protection and justification results in a seared conscience.

You know, when Lazarus was raised from the dead, brother Shaw, one of the most staggering things for me to think about is there was not a revival for everybody. Miracles doesn't always bring revival. Sometimes it brings opposition. And what did they say? We're going to kill Jesus. But not only did they want to kill Jesus, they wanted to kill Lazarus.

Why? Because he was a representation of the new life Jesus could give. Chaos, things that will attack. I'm going to tell you, be careful. If you're already down that road of justification, be careful. Today is a great day to turn.

Look at the fruit of that life. Consider right now before you get to the end destruction. Let God pull you back from things like the preacher preached so well last night. Thank you.

Stand with me, young people. Here's my point. If sin blesses, why aren't they blessed? See, the Bible says you're capable of knowing the rules of existence. You're capable of recognizing, like we said yesterday, the pattern of ideas, but more than that, you're capable of seeing fruit. Jesus says in Matthew 7:16, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?

No. In that beautiful proverb, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. Nothing God requires of you will hurt you or anyone else. But you know what can happen? There's something beautiful about free will. Somebody that willfully walks away from God.

They can get they can run away from the voice of God and and they can get to destinations and and and like Budziszewski would say, they become more wicked and more stupid than they intend. And then they're shocked the week. And that revelation that even the servants in my dad's house has it better than me. Is that that revelation is the opportunity for the prodigal son to get up out of a pig pen and go back home. They can't come home to a pig pen. They got to come home to a church.

They got to have young ladies that can show them there is another path. I'm calling you. I'm calling you. I'm calling you. Come to that path. Young men, God wants to use your life as a beacon of hope so that when they come home, they don't find the same carnality and conversations and sin in your youth group.

Now, understand if you're struggling, I got it. But today would be a good day to say, "This is not going to be a big deal. This is going to be a place filled with understanding and power, healthy relationships, so that we can see the will of the Lord. Would you close your eyes and lift up your hands? There is a cultural wasteland. The fruit of sin is real.

And God is saying, "Protect yourself from lies and then pull others from the clutches of the enemy." Would you commit to that today in your own way? Lord, help me to see the fruit of sin. Help me to listen to the right voices. God, help me to listen to wise voices. Help me to reject foolish company that's trying to tempt me down roads of destruction and disobedience. And then God, help me turn my eyes to a great harvest field that's white that needs you.

Come on, young man. Come on, young lady. I'm I'm commissioning you. I'm going to ask you to step forward today to make a commitment. Help me to see the harvest. It's a wasteland.

So many broken. Come on. When you see them, you you forgive me for my pointedness today. When you see them tatted up and pierced up, when you see her with multiple color hair, don't make fun. Somebody has told her she's not enough. That's why she cuts herself.

That's why she's will gorge and then go. That's why all the complexities are there and you can say God has made you the way you should be and we don't embrace sinful attitudes in this youth group where we make fun and belittle. If you have stop so the Lord can trust you with broken people and your life can happen. Come on young lady slip your hand up. I don't want this to be abstract. Show me how to be that kind of person, Jesus.

Come on, young man. You're built for more than pleasure. God has a strong role for you to play. If you'll say, "God, get discipline in my life. Get boundaries in my life. Help me to operate in courage and faith.

Help me not to be weak and timid, but to be strong, the right way, the godly way, courageous in Jesus name. That's what I'll be.