 I grew up in a Christian household and it wasn't a hypocritical Christian household either like my parents really did believe the Bible. We went to church, we prayed together, we tried to live our lives by the Bible and they taught us according to the Bible. I became a Christian at an early age and I personally didn't really have a super rebellious phase where I wanted to reject everything I had been taught for my parents and just go live according to the world. Things like you know sex before marriage or you know party culture or things like that where it just protected me from those kind of environments and those kind of sins but even still I have encountered some major challenges and temptations that maybe if you're similar to me you've experienced too. One of the key temptations that we experience is that if we haven't really explored a sin or you know really rebelled in a particular way and we might think or tell ourselves that that is like a missing piece like maybe that will deliver a satisfaction like yes we have Jesus yes yeah we're committed to him but in the back of our mind we're kind of like maybe that will actually bring me joy maybe that will actually bring me fulfillment whereas somebody that went through that rebellious phase somebody that had experienced all the world had to offer they already know it's empty they already know it has nothing to really deliver to them a lot of these folks when they give their testimony they're like I did all this stuff and I was depressed and I needed help and then I found God and we're like hey that's awesome but yet we kind of don't believe them like we're like really bro you got depressed off doing all that like that sounds kind of fun like if we're honest but the truth is is that we have yet to really recognize the goodness of God like what we're doing is we're telling ourselves that God is kind of giving us the short end of the stick like he's not really you know he's hiding something from us like yeah we've been playing according to the rules all our lives you know in a lot of ways yes we've rebelled yes and we repented of that yes we want to honor God with our lives but yet there's that missing piece we're like maybe I just be a little bit more happy if if I did that thing and so we have this lingering temptation or thought that you know we because we haven't done it we don't know that it's empty makes me think of a story growing up that my grandparents had this fruit bowl and was always like this pristine fruit always in the same configuration in the middle of their table and growing up I was like oh man this looks so good it's so tasty like and so one day my grandparents were looking and so I grabbed a grape had to kind of rip it off in a weird way it was kind of strange and I took a bite and it was styrofoam and I'm like what that this is empty it looked really nice on the outside but inside it was just like styrofoam it wasn't nutritious and I think in some ways that sin but sin is also it also tastes good at the beginning like it's also good it's pleasurable at the beginning so that's where the analogy kind of breaks down because we do see this thing we see this fruit bowl and we're like okay it kind of looks good we touch we try something it tastes good originally but it will lead to death and so I think of Adam and Eve in the garden when Adam and Eve were in the garden you know Satan was lying to Eve saying that if you eat from this this tree your eyes will be open and and Eve was like okay wow like she started to doubt God that maybe God had given her the short end of the stick and it took the serpent to tell her what she was missing out on and I think in some ways we us who who didn't have that rebellious stage who didn't get to experience like the full emptiness of sin because we were protected from it praise God but yet we saw some questions maybe we have some doubts of those folks that are saying sin's really empty and we're like yeah but I don't know like maybe maybe it's not that maybe it's not that maybe God is hiding something from us maybe when we do try that sin our eyes will be open and it won't be that bad after all so what do we do honestly like you're a Christian you've been living this Christian life you had been protected from a lot of these sins growing up you didn't have that crazy rebellious stage but yet you're still kind of lured by this idea that maybe you missed out on something like so what do you do well this is what the world does the world just decides well I'm just going to give up this good thing that I have and I'm going to go for this new thing they do that all the time not just in terms of God but relationships too when I was having this conversation with this guy who was telling me about how he was considering marrying his girlfriend of five years and he was telling me about his girlfriend and he had nothing but good things to say about her that there is nobody who understood him as much as she did that she was his best friend and the reason he told me that he was hesitant was because he was afraid that he was missing out on hookup culture I told him that people not always but people do hook up with others have meaningless sex to cope with the fact that they don't have what he has I told him that for the rest of his life he is going to be looking for parts of this woman in other people they have this good relationship going and yet they're enticed they're tempted by sexual immorality or hookup culture they want to experience all that the world has to offer because maybe this relationship isn't giving me what I really want this same the same thing kind of applies to our relationship with God in a lot of ways it's like we found our person early on like God scooped us up of the muck out of the muck in the mire of this world and we're like wow this is amazing this is great but then it kind of wanes a little bit in some ways and maybe we're tempted to look at the world and say oh maybe we're we actually are missing out on something maybe this this what we got going on here isn't all satisfying or all isn't giving me the joy and happiness that I really want maybe something else has something for me out there so this brings us back to other option what the world would do they would leave immediately and go find something new find something fresh that they can you know indulge themselves in but what would we do well we should trust God trust that he knows what he's doing that he isn't giving us the short end of the stick that he isn't trying to screw us and and cut us out from something that is good that he truly as is true like he wants to give us a grand inheritance and that her inheritance tied up in who he is and in our relationship with him and the eternal life that is found in him he's not trying to shortchange us for me as a 20-something I've been protected from a lot of different kind of big sins in a lot of ways and holes and traps that I could get wrapped up in and I want to thank God for that like God thank you that I didn't have to experience the full depravity of my own tendencies in that area like thank you for setting up safeguards and accountability and and rescuing me when you did so I didn't have to experience that because it is so dark and is so you know twisted and distorted truly when we talk about sin the more doors that we can keep closed the better like truly the better because what I am seeing is so many young people teenagers that are not being discipled they're not being mentored and in so doing they're opening doors to sin that are so challenging for them to close again like even talking about you know the sexual immorality realm like if you sleep with somebody you're opening that door for that possibility to do it again like once you do that you open that door and I'm not saying that God can't close that door he absolutely can't I'm just saying it's going to be a lot more challenging it really is same with pornography you watch pornography once it becomes that much more easy to watch it again and again and again and again and I know a lot of you you didn't have like an option like you didn't you you didn't look for the stuff it just found you and I'm sorry I'm sorry and truly I believe that God can work and heal and and all of that I'm just saying that it is truly a blessing when God protects us from falling into sin from an early age when he guards us against that know that if you have stumbled if you have strayed we have all strayed know that God is ready and willing to accept you back to welcome you back with celebration if you've experienced the what the world had to offer is empty and and you don't want any of any more of it you can find forgiveness and Jesus that's the whole point I love to hear some of you guys thoughts on this if you grew up Christian or maybe you didn't what are some of the temptations or pitfalls that you experienced based on how you were brought up and how your relationship with God has been I'd love to hear from you in the comments down below thank you so much to everyone who supports on patreon it is because of your support that I can continue to make this content in equipping people to follow Jesus daily so thank you so much and if you want to sign up and help me get to the next goal which is go full-time you can head to the link in my description thanks so much for watching guys and I'll see you next time God bless