 Father, we thank You, Lord, for how You have been pouring out Your rear blessing on this weekend, Lord. Father, I thank You that we can talk about subjects we can think, we can reflect, that we can be challenged, we can be convicted, Father, that we can be inspired to press on. Father, my prayer is that this weekend would not be an end, but just a means, Lord, in the journey of growing in Your likeness, of pursuing You, of knowing You in deeper or fuller ways, of being able to say that Jesus is Lord in new places in our hearts that You have not been Lord before. Father, I pray You'll bless Brother Steve. Lord, you know the challenge He had in the last day or two here of sickness. Thank You that He pressed through, did not give up. Father, I pray You give Him health, give Him strength, Lord, give Him a clear mind and bless Him with anointing of Your Spirit. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, thank you, Brother. Good afternoon, brothers. I'm really glad to be here today, and especially challenged to be able to face a group of young men. And I guess to burden on my heart as a man and with the experience I've had in my own life and what I see happening in the lives of many others, I have a burden. I have a burden for you. I have a desire to see that you will be able to do well in your lives, that you will become productive men in the kingdom of God and that God will do great things in your lives. So what I'm planning to share on here is, somewhat from my own testimony, I'm going to share some with that. And then out of that, I'm going to share in Scripture various things that I have learned, some challenges that I have had, and the work that God has done in my life and the work that God wants to do in your life as well. Just a little bit about who I am, so we sort of know each other somewhat. I'm a real estate agent. I'm an investor in real estate. I've been doing that for about 10 years. Before that, I was in the computer software industry for about 15 years. I had one year in Kenya, Africa. When I was a young man, I was at a rescue mission for a year out in Illinois. So I've been around a little bit. I'm married to my wife, Mary Lou, and we have three daughters. We live in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, which is up toward Altoona if you don't know where that's at, so we're not very far from here. And as I was thinking about sharing with you here today, I guess my mind went back to my own life, my own experience as a young man, and I just want to encourage you and I want to challenge you. The question I want to begin with is this. Here you are this day. What are you going to do with your life? What are you actually going to do with your life? You have one life. Here you are. What are you going to do? It's a question you need to answer, and it's not necessarily something to answer quickly, but it's a question you should be exploring, you should be thinking about, and you should be coming to a very firm conclusion. Many boys, many young men in our day are like ships without a sail. There's no direction. They're out there bobbing around. They don't know where they're going. They don't know where they're at, and they generally don't get very far. The theme of the weekend is the Heroes of the Faith, and it's an inspiring theme from my perspective. Now we can look at that. We can look at the people in Scripture and we can say that these people were so great and they did such great things and I could never possibly do the things that these people did. You could become intimidated a little bit and you could become discouraged, but I guess the way I look at it is I am inspired when I see another person, whether it be in Scripture or whether it be a person today who is doing the will of God, who is actually responding properly to the challenges that they are facing. A person that is out on the front line, so to speak, in spiritual battles that are happening in the kingdom and you may think to yourself that you could never be a hero of the faith, but I will say this, you can be a hero of the faith, especially to people whose lives you touch. If you get married at some point to your wife, to your children, to your grandchildren, to others that you influence. A person that you influence and win to Christ, that person is going to view you as a hero. So I want to encourage you in that. I grew up in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, which is just outside of Altoona, it's on the south side. I was part of the church of the brethren growing up, I don't know how many of you are familiar with the church of the brethren, but I was sort of in the middle of the road church of the brethren. Church of the brethren is, it runs the whole spectrum. We were sort of in the middle. We had some truth. There was something there if you were interested. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very glad that I was raised with the influence of a Christian church. Not the best church. Certainly a lot of things lacking there. The way I describe it is we didn't have a full understanding. A lot of things we did not understand. But the things that we had I'm thankful for because that helped to lay some foundation in my own life. I was, I am one of, I'm the fifth born of eight children. So we had a big family and my parents are both deceased at this point. When I was young I would have thought that we were just the normal American family. I would have thought that this is what a family is like. This is the way things are supposed to be. I didn't realize some of the problems that we were actually facing and they later came to a head. I want to say this as I share some things. I have to be careful in that the Scripture does instruct us to honor our parents. And I want to do that. On the same, on the other hand we got to tell the truth of the situation. And so anything I say about my parents please don't view it as a negative. I love both my parents. And I will say this. I especially appreciate the good things that they have done for me. And there are many, many good things that they have done. Not the least of which is exposing me to the Word of God. And that I'm thankful for. But I don't know that either of my parents really were converted. We always went to church. That was number one priority with my dad. But I think that was a big part of what being a Christian was for my dad was just being connected to church, going to church. As far as life there was a disconnect. And my dad had some different problems. I still remember the time when I was I guess probably around 15, 16 years old when my dad came and told me that he was going to jail. And I was in shock. I mean I didn't even realize what was going on. And he did go to jail. And my mother left my dad and ended up connecting with another man. And so our family situation was in a turmoil. It was a mess. And where I was at in my life God was already working in my life. God was already doing something in my life. And I was responding to at least some degree. But the crisis in the family really made me search for answers. It made me look for something that had some kind of stability. Something that I could latch a hold of that was a value and that I could count on. And I really began to seek and to search and to look into the Word of God. And I was a typical young guy I would say I was not a rebel. I was not a person who was bent on going out and just doing a bunch of evil things. I had a conscience even before I was really converted and tried to live a fairly good life. But I had different challenges, different problems with sin. That was the reality in my life. As I began to study Scripture, as I began to ask God different questions and to search for answers, I was just spending tremendous time searching the Word of God and seeking the face of God. And God was doing something. God was doing something great in my life. It was during this time that I really began to understand the teaching of Jesus. This is in Luke chapter 14. If you have your Bible, I'd encourage you to open it to that. Luke chapter 14, we're going to talk here about the concept of being a Christian. And I just... What I grew up with was more the concept of you responded in invitation. You say you want Christ as your Savior. You want to have your sins forgiven. You're baptized. You join the church. And that is you have become a Christian. And I'm not... Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not saying anything bad about any of those things. But I do want to say this. There's more to it than that. There is something that has to happen in your heart if you are going to be a Christian. There is a change that must take place in your heart at the very core of your being. And it is that change which is actually more of the essence of being born again. And this has a lot to do with it in Luke 14. Verse 25, the Bible says, and there went great multitudes with Him. He's talking about Jesus, and He turned and said unto them, If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower siteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it. Lest haply after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to make war against another king siteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able, with ten thousand, to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand. Or else while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise whosoever he be of you, that forsake if not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dung hill, but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Another scripture that I want to bring out that ties in with us, and it's in Matthew chapter 10. Trying to locate the exact verse here. I might just have to turn to it to find it. It's around 39, I think. Matthew 10. Okay, it is verse 39. He that findeth his life. He who is speaking to you. He that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loseeth his life for my sake shall find it. I ask you the question, what are you going to do with your life? And Jesus is saying to you, if you find your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. The concept here is the giving of your life. The surrender of your life. Giving your life to Christ so that you can serve Him and do His will. Salvation requires you to give your life. And I remember as a young man reading these scriptures and wrestling in my heart. Am I actually willing to give everything to Christ? I don't know if you've come to that place yet in your life. I imagine some of you have. I imagine many of you have not. But I want to share that with you today. If you're going to be a Christian, if you're going to be Christ's disciple, it requires the giving of your entire life. Not just parts, not just pieces. Not just some. But it requires all. There is no greater privilege that you have. There is no greater cause. There is no greater mission that you could be a part of. There is nothing of greater value that is offered to you than to follow Jesus Christ and to do His will. If you want to have Christ the Savior and still be in charge of your life, if you want God's best and the best that the world has to offer, if you are willing to give much, but you're not willing to give all, you cannot be Christ's disciple. That's what Jesus is saying here in Luke 14. What does it actually require to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? It requires complete surrender. Total surrender. Giving up. Giving your life. It requires hating your own life. Verse 26, you have to hate your own life, which means you're going to follow Christ. You're going to do what Christ says, not what you say. So where there's a conflict, you're going to follow Christ. That's the idea of hating your life. It requires the death of self. Now you're no longer in charge of your life. But Christ is in charge of your life. And you're going to obey Him. You have to die. You must die. You're dead, the Bible says. And your life is hid with Christ and God. You must die. And you will find new life in Christ. It requires forsaking all that you have. Verse 33, you have to give everything that you have. And that's material possessions. But it's more than material possessions. It's all the relationships. It's all the desires of your heart. It's all the things that you hold dear to yourself. You must forsake them. It requires total commitment. It requires 100% obedience. If you do not obey Christ in all things, everything, you're not His disciple. And many of things are easy. Many of things are challenging. Some of the things are very difficult. You think about the heroes of the faith. You think about some of the people that are being shared about this weekend. Think about people who have actually died for their faith in Christ. And I remember, I was just a young guy. I was just trying to say, I want to follow Christ, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to... I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to go to the stake and be killed for Christ. God gives grace for those situations when we face them. It's hard to know ahead how am I going to respond in this situation or that situation. But I have confidence in this. I have given my life to Christ. It is my heart's desire to follow Him and to be true and faithful to Him, even to the point of death. And I believe that should I ever face that situation, that God will provide the strength and the grace in that moment where I will be true and faithful. And I trust the same for you. But you need to be willing to give even your actual physical life, that you give to Christ. Obedience, Luke 6, 46, Jesus said, And why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say as perplexing. People who call Jesus Lord, but they don't obey what He says. Okay? It doesn't make sense. It's not right. It's not as it should be. We need obedience. It requires to be a disciple hating others. Verse 26, you have to hate father and mother. You have to hate brother and sister. You have to hate your wife and your children. And this is kind of a strong language. We think of hatred as being a sin, generally. But it's not in this case. The hatred that he's talking about is, who are you going to be loyal to? Okay? What is most important to you? Your relationship with your wife or your relationship with Christ? Your relationship with your parents or Christ? I've actually experienced this in my life where one of my siblings, and this is when I was young and I didn't really have a great support system, but one of my siblings was going to get married. He was going to marry a divorced woman and I knew that that's wrong. And I'm not going to be able to support that. And I shared that with him and he was not pleased. And it changed our relationship. And that relationship remains changed to this very day. But I knew where my loyalty was. And while I still love my brother, my love for Christ is greater. And I don't regret remaining true to Christ and following him and honoring him. It's loving Christ above all others. Being Christ's disciple means taking up your cross and following him. To take up the cross, the cross is a picture there of suffering where you're actually going to be ridiculed for being a Christian. You're going to be mistreated. You're going to be viewed as a bad person and it can get a lot worse than that. And you've got to be willing to suffer whatever it takes if you're going to follow Christ. Discipleship means Jesus is first. Jesus is king. Jesus is Lord. Discipleship is a life of faith and obedience. If you're looking for a good foundation in your life, remember what Jesus said there in Matthew chapter 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Remember that? He talked about two men building a house. One man was a foolish man, right? He built his house on the sand, right? The other was a wise man who built his house on a rock. But what did he say that actually represented those two things? Sand and the rock. Do you remember that passage? Jesus said what? The man who hears my sayings and does them is the wise man who builds on the rock. His house lasts. The man who hears my sayings but does not do them, he is the foolish man and his house is destroyed. The house is your life. And you want to build on a solid foundation. So this concept of discipleship, if you do not settle this question, it is very likely that you will flounder all of your life. And the reason is to actually experience the power of God in its fullness, it requires a full commitment. It requires being willing to obey even when it hurts, even when it is a major sacrifice. It is in those experiences that our faith is purified and our faith shines forth like gold and you actually experience the benefits of such faith. So I want to lay that challenge before you today, young men. Settle the question. Give it very serious thought. And it may take you time to wrestle through it and that is fine. I don't push people to make any decisions at any time because this is your life we are talking about. And God is expecting you to stand true to what you say. So that is the issue of discipleship. Disciplining your life after the Lord Jesus Christ, following Him, having Him as your Lord and Savior. I had an experience I want to share with you and I really wish I could not share this and I am going to share it because it needs to come out. Several years ago I was speaking to a young man and he was facing some real challenges in his life. He had been raised in a Christian home and I am not sure what went wrong with him but he was beginning to turn from what he had been given. And that is one of the lessons I want you to take with you today. Take advantage of what you have been given, whatever it is. Some have been given a lot more than others but whatever good you have been given, take advantage of it. Use it. Don't throw it away. And this young man was struggling. I remember him sharing with me and I was trying to figure out because I had known him off and on for years and he was in a spiritual battle for his very soul. And it seemed like at that point he was rejecting some of the temptations that he was experiencing and he was wanting to do what was right and I don't know where he was actually at at that moment but you know that it wasn't that long after that that he basically turned his back on the church. He turned his back on his parents. He wanted to go out and live the life of sin. I don't know how else to say it. He was drawn to that life. And so he went out and he connected with people that drank and corrals and sexual immorality and all the other things. And he was in that for a time and he got himself into some problems. He ended up in jail and I thought, now he's in jail. Hopefully God is going to speak to his heart and help him to realize that he got to change your ways. But he went, served his time. He came back out. See, he made his decision of what he wanted to do with his life. He found his own life. And things went for a period of time until one day I got a call from his brother and I still remember right where I was at at this moment and he said this young man was dead. And I said, what happened? And he said he shot up with some kind of drug. I don't know if the drug was tainted or if he overdosed what the problem was but that was it. And I remember sitting at his funeral just my heart aching beyond belief. Why? He gave his life. He gave his life for the wrong thing. You have an opportunity to give your life for something that really matters. Something of value. And for the glory of God. Not for shame. I talked about discipleship. What we look at is escaping Satan's traps. I'm going to share a number of traps that young men especially are facing and falling into. And you may be in some of these. I don't know. Hopefully not. But whether you are or whether you are not you need to be aware of these traps and you need to avoid these traps. And if you are in these traps you need to get out. Because some of these things can cost your very life. God's will for every Christian for every believer is that we would have victory in Jesus Christ. It's a part of salvation is not just the forgiveness of sins but it's actually where God teaches us how to live. Where we actually have the power of God the resurrection power of God in our lives on a daily basis where we are no longer in bondage to sin. It's not just a dream. It is God's desire for it to be reality in your life. John 8, 31 and 32 then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him if you continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Hallelujah. It is Christ's ministry. It is His work for you to experience the truth which Jesus Himself is the truth and to find freedom from the bondage of sin. You need to understand that. If you are beaten down now in your life if you are defeated I've been there. Don't give up. But understand that it is God's desire for you to be free. It is God's desire for you to have victory. That is His intention and that is what He provides. Satan wants to keep us in bondage because when we are in bondage we are in trouble but we are also very ineffective in any work that we could do to impact anyone else in a positive way. First trap I want to look at is pride. Arrogance. Proverbs 8, 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance and the evil way and the fro-word mouth do I hate. I don't know if this is something you deal with or not. This has actually been a problem in my life the issue of pride. It is to view oneself as great. It is to think more of yourself than what you should. That is the idea of pride that we are talking about. The thing that God hates. Pride is irrational. It is self-promoting. It is self-deluding. It is self-glorifying. And a person that is proud has a skewed view of reality. They don't have the correct picture of themselves and their relationship with God and others. Pride is a big problem but at the extreme if you go to the extreme end of pride you will actually become a fool. You can't be taught. You can't be shown anything. You can't be helped because you already know it. You already have all the answers and you're bent on going your own way. Pride is something that God hates. It is something that God will not allow to stand. It is something that he has said he will deal with. He will bring the proud low. He will bring his own discipline. He will bring his own correction. And I know from personal experience it can be very painful where God will humble you until you realize that, yeah, I guess I'm not that I was. Beware of pride in your life and don't let it take root in your heart. Now to clarify there's a difference between confidence and arrogance. There's a difference between boldness and haughtiness. They're not the same thing. Proud people can be very confident and they can be very bold just because a person is confident and bold does not mean that person is proud. Confidence and boldness are actually things that come out of walking in the truth, walking in the spirit in your life and gaining victory over sin to where God is at work in your life and you're experiencing the power of God. So just want to make that clear sometimes people think a person that has some confidence not so much confidence in themselves but confidence in God. Confidence in the Word of God. Confidence in what God wants. That's not a bad thing. It's not really an indicator of pride. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God the Bible says and God will exalt you in due time. Watch out for pride. Second trap, drugs and alcohol. Why is it that people use drugs and alcohol? I'm curious. Any ideas? Why would people use drugs and alcohol? Somebody said pleasure makes you feel good, right? It's to feel good. That's the primary reason that people use drugs and alcohol. I worked for a year at the Wayside Cross Rescue Mission in Illinois and it was when I was a young man 20, 21, 22 years old and I was... I couldn't believe what I was seeing. How people's lives had been totally destroyed through drunkenness and through drug addiction and these things to understand the danger. We need to watch out for these things. Proverbs 20 verse 1 says, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Are you deceived by that? Is there an attraction there for you? Beware of drugs and alcohol. I think for a lot of us growing up in a family without these things it really helps a lot and maybe you don't have any desire there, I don't know but the pressure for some of these things and the lure of them is actually very strong in the world and many, many people get themselves pulled into this and become addicts and face all kinds of challenges as a result. The next trap is... I have a couple different things here linked together but they're kind of tied together. It would be the love of money, wasteful spending and the use of debt. Let's kind of put these together in one package and the thing that's happening here as far as I can tell with money is it's the belief that money is going to make you happy. If you had more money you're going to be happy. If you had the things money can buy you're going to be happy and this is a challenge that we face. Your happiness will not come from having more money. There are situations where having more money is a real blessing and money is something we need for expenses and get by. So it's not... we understand that. But having a lot of money doesn't make people happy often the opposite is the case. If you think that spending and buying and getting and having is going to satisfy you it will not meet the needs of the heart. It will not give you a lot of thinking. This is where a lot of people and young people especially get themselves into some different types of debt problems. Think about your life being useful in the kingdom of God being free to go where God may send you which could be many places. If you are in debt you may not be able to go because you have obligations that you need to pay. And so borrowing makes you a servant. Proverbs 22 verse 7 the borrower is servant to the lender. I think we know that verse. Borrowing puts you in a servant position. You become obligated to pay that back and you have to continue to do that over time. The reason that people borrow why do people borrow? Ask that question. Why would you borrow for something to buy it? Why? Can't wait. That's exactly right. The thing that borrowing does is it allows you to buy something today that you would either have to wait for or completely do without. And so when you borrow for things especially things that are not necessary you are displaying a defect in your character. You're thinking that you have to have whatever this is if it's not a need you don't need it. You don't have to have it and it's something that you should at least put off and maybe do without. The way that you handle money and the way that you handle finances it tells a lot about you. It tells a lot about the discipline that you have in your life or the lack of discipline. And the skill there in saying no to desires and the discipline of that will be an asset to you as you work in the Kingdom of God. I know a young man right now he's doing remarkable. I mean he graduated from college top of the class he got a good job he's making good money and additional certifications I would say from the world's perspective he is on target to be a millionaire probably I would think within 10 years. The problem is he doesn't follow Christ. He turns back on Christ. It's a sad situation. But he has the love of money and he's seeking after that. The next trap sexual immorality and pornography. The desire of a man for an intimate relationship with a woman is a normal natural desire. It is not bad. It is not evil. It's not something that is of the devil. That's a normal thing. That's part of being a man. God made us. The question is what do you do with the desire? That's the real issue. What do you do with it? If you allow that desire to take control in your life you're going to go places that God doesn't want you to be. The desire is there to motivate you to marry and to have a family and to love your wife and to enjoy the privileges that go along with that. And so as a young man this is an area that in our society has become just a major, major source of temptation in a battleground that is wreaking havoc in many lives. I would like to know but I'm not going to ask but I would love to know in the group that is present right here how many in this group have looked at pornography this month. I would love to have an answer to that. In most circles the numbers are staggering. It's just hard to imagine. In the old days when I was young and I actually fell into this trap and I was not seeking after it I actually found pornography without looking for it and I got sucked in and I was in bondage for a period of time. But in the old days my case was an exception you kind of had to look for this. You kind of had to take the initiative if you were going to be getting involved in pornography. Those days are over. Now it's looking for you. It's coming after you before it was stay away from it. Now it is defend yourself. You have to take steps. You have to guard your heart. You have to be ready because I am telling you those temptations are all around you. They're in your hand. It's everywhere. So this is an issue that I want to warn you and when you are involved in this there is a corruption in your heart which is happening which is somewhat difficult to explain. I've experienced it. The guilt the guilt is terrible and the fact that here I am trapped in this and yet I keep going back. I keep doing this over and over again. It's just destructive to the very human make up. Sexual immorality can cost you your life. Read Proverbs chapter 7 and you'll find out it has landed many men in spiritual ruin and it is a trap that the devil continues to lay and continues to lead in bringing people down. The last one that I want to look at is media internet and entertainment and it kind of ties into the pornography somewhat but this is sort of a different subject. I was raised on television. We had television. I spent hundreds and hundreds of possibly thousands of hours in my life on television and when I was converted one of the real battles that I had in my life was to break free from the television. It was a fight. Praise God I got the victory but I'll tell you it was easy compared to what we're dealing with today. With media all around us and always with us the the draw there the temptation things have really changed. I was at Pitt University this week on campus students were there. I was in the Cathedral of Learning fascinating building on the Pitt campus very large building like a cathedral. I was inside I just happened to look around and there were I don't know maybe 30 people around in there look what prompted me is I went over to a table and here are about 10 or 12 students every single student was looking at their phone not one of those people was in conversation with anybody else around that table. I looked at this this is strange and then I looked at the whole room and it was I think around 80% of the people had their phone okay I have a phone okay I use my phone the phone itself isn't the problem but it becomes a problem when the phone becomes a toy okay phones phones a tool not a toy. Tools are for adults toys for children so that was the problem with TV for me is it was a toy and it was also an instrument that Satan uses to bring images and to bring ideas and to bring temptations and I'll tell you what there is no way that I could watch TV and work through all that to keep the temptations away I couldn't do it I couldn't get victory when I was watching TV okay but I was able to get victory after the phone the computer is a good tool I use a number of things in real estate I'm an agent we have electronic signature now we have our listings on there showing requests I mean it's tremendous the time that is saved it's good but as a toy all the media and all of the glitz and all of the things that go along with that it's actually capturing the hearts of people I don't know if you've seen this or maybe you've experienced it your life is about your phone that's your whole life it's what's happening on the phone it's who you're connected with there it's what you're watching it's what you're pursuing if you remember back in the Old Testament if you remember this with Absalom he stole the hearts of the men of Israel and by doing that he was able to overthrow the kingdom Satan is using the same kind of strategy where through all of these things people's hearts are being drawn in and they're coming into bondage 1 Corinthians 6 verse 12 all things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any is the phone is it a sin no, it's not a sin but if you're in bondage if you're addicted to your phone that's a problem you're under the power of it if you constantly watch things on your phone which you know go against what the Bible teaches and draw you into temptation that's wrong you're not to be doing that, you're filling your mind with garbage 1 Corinthians 10, 23 all things are lawful for me but all things edify not we want to focus our time and energy on the things that edify these are the things I have to share here the traps I've been in a number of these traps I know what it feels like if you're in these traps any of them I want to say this to you you can get out God can help you get out of that trap God can deliver you but it goes along with what we talked about at the beginning you have to be a disciple you have to surrender all you have to follow what God says you have to please Him God wants to set you free if you're not able to get free in your life if you are defeated if you are in bondage let me say this to you you've probably done that obviously reach out to God but if that still you're still floundering reach out to other godly men that you have confidence in I've become part of something that's been a real blessing to me and that is first time in my life here in the past few years I started meeting with a group of men and we just share we share what's happening in our lives we share the struggles we might be having we share prayer requests that we might have or seek advice problems or situations that we have I've seen in this in this group in just a short time I have seen God do tremendous things in that that was something I did not have as a young man I was kind of out there on my own but I encourage you reach out and find help because God wants to use you God wants to use you in the work of His kingdom God wants you to be someone who can actually be a blessing to others a person that can bring deliverance to others a person who can bring wisdom to others who can bring other people to Christ that's what God wants to use you for but to really be in a position to be used you need the experience yourself you need deliverance yourself you need victory yourself 1 John 2, 14 I'm going to close with this verse it's beautiful I have written unto you young men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one hallelujah, is it true in your life what John writes God wants it to be true for every one of us so I encourage you I challenge you we want to be there for you as young men to help you become grounded and established in the faith and become useful as soldiers in the kingdom of God