Choices
Sermon Review
Youth Service 21 May 2000

Youth Services should remind us of an old proverb. "to keep young, associate much with young people". The finishing line is not so well known. "To get old in a hurry, try keeping up with them!"

1996 Sydney morning Herald ran a series of articles on the modern youth culture. One of the articles was titled, 'What tribe is your teen?'. The article goes on to describe some 10 major categories of teenagers, and mentions many hybrids and sub groupings. Some of the categories they described were 'Home Boys', 'Ravers', 'Goths', 'Skaters', 'Surfers', 'Nerds', 'Trekkies', 'Jocks', 'Grunge', 'Vibe Tribers', 'Cyber Punks', and 'Waxheads'. Being confronted with these varying groups tends to make a person consider that teenagers are aliens from another planet. That they deserve their own X File with Mulder and Sculley digging into them. This is a myth.

Young person, look around and you will see older persons - they were once teenagers.

Older person, look around and you will see teenagers - you were once a teenager.

An Important Question

Have you ever stopped to think what you will be like at 20, or 25, or 30, or 40? Two major things will combine to shape what you will be like and what your life will be like at those ages; (a) time (b) choices. If you hang around long enough the first will simply catch up with you. The second rests on you. You are the one who has control over many of the important choices which will shape you and your future.

An Important Consideration

All choices have consequences, but so many of them have unintended consequences. Especially noticeable are the unintended consequences of the bad choices that we make. For example:

Most, if not all, did not intend the end result of their choices, but they happened anyway, as I am sure that the 510 youth suicides in Australia each year never started out their lives with the intention of attempting suicide! But one choice and decision led to another, and to another, and to another. Finally they felt that they had no other choice but to attempt to destroy themselves.

The Law of the Harvest: Gal.6:6 ff. "We reap what we sow"

The laws of the harvest are simple:

  1. we reap the kind of grain we sow eg. Zucchini seed will not grow grapes
  2. we reap later than when we sow eg. It takes 3-4 months for Zucchini’s to grow.
  3. we reap a larger harvest than what we sow - one zucchini plant grows many zucchinis.

Too often we expect good results in life from making dangerous or wrong choices. Too often we are deceived into thinking that because nothing bad is happening to us while we are sowing, that there will be nothing bad come of doing it. To often we underestimate the scope or magnitude of the consequences we set ourselves up for.

Conclusion:

The Bible says, "Remember your creator in the days of your youth…" Ecc.12:1

This is good advice for you have a chance to shape your life while you are most maleable. As we get older we become less willing to embrace new things, or change our beliefs and viewpoints. This is why it is so often the tragic and the difficult which drives older people to commit themselves to Christ. When you are young you have the opportunity to avoid tragedies and difficulties which are related to the choices you make. Why not think seriously about giving Jesus Christ your life? If you already know him, why not think seriously about obeying him as a way of life, and not only when it suits.

The choices you make today about sex, drugs, relationships, education, employment, and God, will shape your future, so think seriously. The effects of time and choice will one day catch up.

Today you have a chance to consider now what you will be like and what life will be like if you do not make any changes in your choices, for it is they which will shape your tomorrows. You will only be young once, but you can remain immature or out of sorts with yourself, life, others, and God indefinitely. The choice is yours.

Blessings

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