Teenage Tangles
by Dr. Oliver Araiza
Oliver Araiza is a local church evangelist out of West Union, West Virginia and founder of WVGV radio
“Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (II Timothy 2:1-4)
The Bible says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;...” It’s talking about getting tangled up. No man that is going to be a warrior for the Lord Jesus Christ is going to entangle himself with the affairs of this life. If he does, he cannot please the One that has called him to be a soldier.
When I think about this word ‘tangles,’ stories flood my mind. For eight summers I’ve travelled with Dr. Joe Boyd, from the age of 15 until the year I got married. Then I worked for Dr. Randy Taylor as a youth evangelist for eight years. When we would go to revival meetings, both of us would come in, Brother Taylor would preach to the adult crowd, and I would do the children’s services. Then I would do a teen revival after the service. On Friday night and Sunday nights, we would have activities. Every Friday night we’d have a bonfire service and on Sunday night we’d have a pizza blast. For many years of my life, every Sunday night, I ended up eating pizza. You would think that I would have gotten sick of it, but actually I acquired an addiction!
We were in Texas having this bonfire service. I had already preached. Decisions had been made. We roasted some hotdogs and somebody brought a bag of marshmallows. I don’t know about you, but I like roasted marshmallows. I like to get them to where they are just a little brown, kind of toasted all the way around. Then you eat the cooked part off of it and you roast it again. Then you just gobble it down.
Well, one kid had a stick with a marshmallow on the end of it and it caught on fire. He tried to blow it out, but it wouldn’t go out, so he started swinging it round and round. It looked like a torch. Finally it went out, but he kept swinging it. All of a sudden that hot marshmallow flew off the end of that stick and hit a girl in the head. When that marshmallow hit her in the back of the head, she thought a bat had hit her, so she started screaming and batting at it. The more she did that, that marshmallow got all tangled up in her hair. You talk about a tangled up mess. It was awful. We will talk about some tangles today.
Second Timothy was a letter written to a young preacher. As you study the books of I and II Timothy you’ll learn some things about this young man, Timothy. He wasn’t as young as you are, but he was a young preacher. We find that he was kind of a sickly man, with health problems. We find out also that he was very timid. Paul said to Timothy, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7)
Young people, if there is anything I desire for my children and for you as Christian teenagers, don’t be intimidated by this world. It’s really a shame that these teenagers that have their hair all punked out and spiked and dyed weird colors, with all these earrings and piercings and tattoos, and they just proudly walk through the malls and shopping centers looking for attention like that every day of their life and they are not ashamed of it. Meanwhile, teenagers who have decency and morality and the right kind of standards and want to live holy have become so timid about it. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The apostle, the preacher here, was trying to get this young man to not be so afraid and backward and timid.
Evidently Timothy was very youthful in his appearance, but we know that he was a God-called, gifted preacher and teacher. Timothy was saved during Paul’s first missionary journey and he began travelling with Paul on his second missionary trip. He was faithful in every single assignment that the old preacher had given him.
Chapter two alone is very important. The Apostle Paul calls Timothy ‘a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’ The apostle, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, lists keys to having an enduring and successful ministry.
Paul teaches him how to have a reproducing ministry in chapter 2, verses 1-2. In verses 3-13, Paul teaches him how to have an enduring ministry. We need teenagers that are just going to stay by the stuff. Don’t give in. Don’t throw in the towel. Just stay faithful. In verses 14-18, he tells him to have a studying ministry. Young people, I can’t stress how important it is that you need to be reading and studying your Bibles. Your convictions will never be as strong as those convictions that are taught to you by God. The old timers used to call it ‘Spirit-taught,’ where the Spirit of God teaches you. There are convictions that I came to the realization of when I was a young person. I’m telling you the Spirit of God can teach you. Then he tells him how to have a holy ministry ending up the chapter. The purpose of this letter was to encourage Timothy to persevere, to keep on going. It really could be called a combat manual because much of it warns him that his preaching is going to come under attack. Paul says to Timothy, “You be faithful.”
Look with me at chapter four, verses 1-5, I love these verses. They just fire me up every time I read them. Paul says to Timothy, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Boy, those verses just fire me up. When I read them, I’m ready to charge Hell with a wet mop.
That’s what they were intended to do for this young preacher here. Paul was giving him some information that was like combat training. This book could be considered a combat manual because combat means standing in the face of opposition. Paul was telling this young preacher that there will be people that you will meet; they are going to oppose you. Everything that you want to do, they are going to oppose. They are going to laugh and mock at your preaching. They are going to laugh at the way you live your life and laugh at the decisions that you make, but he is saying to him, “Don’t you worry about it. You just persevere. Whether it is popular or not popular, you preach it. You teach it. Stick with the Bible.”
It’s a combat manual because he is teaching them that there are forces that are struggling against each other. What we are talking about is a spiritual struggle. It is spiritual warfare. That’s what the apostle is talking about. Paul reminds Timothy that the Lord has chosen him to be a soldier and soldiers fight. Soldiers fight for freedom. Soldiers, even though they may have fear, they are able to harness their fear and do what they have to do, do what they were trained to do. Whether they are afraid or not, they are going to do it. They are fighting soldiers.
Paul reminds Timothy that he has been chosen as a soldier. Combat means opposition. He says, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” That’s an exciting verse to me. I like that kind of stuff. I love the outdoors. I love guns. I love knives. I love bow hunting. I like blood and guts, and all that kind of stuff. I gravitate to that. We need some of you, young people, to realize that we are not on a Sunday school picnic. The devil wants to destroy your life and your usefulness for God, and he’ll do everything he possibly can to entangle you, to trap you, and to destroy your testimony.
For the message to have a real impact on you, I want you to see yourself as Timothy. You’ve got to find some way to put yourself in Timothy’s place. There are some things in his life that are similar to yours.
#1. He was young, just like you are young.
#2. You are living in a time when people are turning away from truth, and so was Timothy. By the way, you right now are under someone’s ministry like Timothy was under the ministry of Paul, and do you know what your leaders are trying to do? They are trying to get you ready for some hardship and some combat. They are trying to equip you and teach you to know who the enemy is.
I’m not the enemy. Your mom and dad are not the enemy. Your preacher is not the enemy. I’m telling you, young people, the devil is your enemy. This young man, Timothy, was under someone’s ministry that was trying to get him to realize that he had an enemy and there was a battle going on. There is combat. There is struggle. Forces are struggling against forces.
#3 His home was somewhat divided. Some of your homes are divided. His was divided in the sense that his father was an unbelieving Greek and his mother was a saved Jew. People didn’t like those kind of combinations back in those days. When you stop and think about him, he had a lot of things in common with most of you.
Notice these words. The Bible says, ‘endure hardness.’ Notice the words ‘good soldier.’ They all have to do with combat and fighting. Notice the words ‘no man that warreth.’ Notice the words ‘entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.’
There was an advertisement that was popular a while back about the Army National Guard. Many paratroopers were parachuting down from the sky. Bombs were exploding. You could hear the sounds and see the flashes in the background. The camera centered in on one paratrooper coming down. As this paratrooper descends into the battlefield, all of a sudden his cell phone starts ringing. He is feeling around in his jumpsuit and finally pulls out his cell phone. He opens it up and he begins to talk to it and it is his boss, who calls his name and says, “Man, why haven’t you done this? I need you in this meeting here. We need these papers here. What about that report?”
The paratrooper is trying to say, “Man, I’m in the Army National Guard.” The whole thing was really about the bosses who employed these soldiers, the Army National Guard, to give them a break. If they are called to do service for their country, then don’t entangle them with the affairs of this life. While a soldier is at war, he really can’t be preoccupied with the cares of civilian life.
The Bible says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” The word entangle means to twist. It means to interweave. It means ‘not easily separated.’ It means ‘confused and disordered’ as rope, yarn or thread. When a soldier gets preoccupied, when he gets bogged down with the affairs and details of every day life, then he’s not really able to perform like his comrades need him to perform because he is preoccupied. When a soldier gets tangled up with the affairs of this life, he’s not going to be able to do what he’s been trained to do.
I was holding a meeting down in Arkansas and the preacher said, “Brother Araiza, do you like to fish?”
I said, “Preacher, I love to fish. I like to fish with the hook and the Book.”
He said, “Would you like to go fishing? Maybe we can plan one morning to go fishing.”
I said, “Brother, that would be great. It’s been a long time since I got to do something like that.”
He told me what time he was going to come by. I was real excited. He had a pretty nice boat and some good gear. He picked me up. I got in his pickup and we went over to this lake. I was sipping on a cup of coffee and eating a donut. Everybody knows that’s where the hidden power of the Holy Spirit is found in the morning, a cup of coffee, a donut, and a King James Bible.
We pulled up to the lake. There were all kinds of trees and stumps in the lake and there was a real light fog across the top of it. You could see fish hitting the top of it now and then. It just looked so inviting. I said, “This is going to be great.” I didn’t have any equipment with me of my own. I had to use all of his. We got into his boat and strapped on those vests, fancy ones that have pockets. He started up his motor and that motor boat shot across the water. We got to where we were going to start fishing first and he handed me a rod and reel to use.
When I saw that rod and reel, I knew I was in trouble because I’m just not real good with the kind of equipment he had. He had what you call a bait cast. I’ve fished all of my life with spin cast. That’s the kind I like. It’s just a very light lure, that light weight line. You can just flick it out there. That’s what I like, but the pros use those bait cast. We used to call them open face. If you know how to do them, they are good. You’ve got to use your thumb. When that bait hits the water, your thumb has to hit that spool at the same time or very close to it. If you don’t, the bait hits the water, the line stops, but the spool doesn’t. If you don’t stop it with your thumb, it back lines. When the preacher handed me that I thought to myself, “This is going to be a bad day. I hate these things.” I said, “Brother, is that all you have?”
He said, “That’s all I’ve got.”
I said, “I don’t know if you want me to fish with this thing. I might mess it up.”
He said, “It will be all right.” I can’t even enjoy this fishing trip because I’ve got to watch my thumb and the tip of my rod and the lure all at the same time. I’m trying to drop these crank baits over by those stumps. I’m flicking it and I’m watching my thumb, spool, and trying to time it. It’s not even fun. If I had the spin cast, I could throw it anywhere I want.
I kept at it and got to feeling like I was getting a little bit better so I said, “This 20 feet from the boat is not going to work here. I got to get that thing out there.” I tried and I didn’t make it. I looked down at that spool and it looked like a bird’s nest. I’m telling you, I’ve never seen so much line. I kind of kept my back to the preacher as I was working on that thing there. He noticed that I hadn’t cast anything in a while.
“Brother Oliver, what is going on?”
I said, “Oh, nothing preacher, it’s all right.”
“Man, did you tangle up that line.”
I said, “Well, Preacher, I told you I’m not good at these things.”
He said, “Here, I’ll take it. I can get it out. Here you take mine.”
“Take yours? Are you sure you want to do this?”
He said, “It will be okay.” In a couple of minutes, he had that thing untangled. I am usually pretty gifted at getting tangles out of stuff like that, but with somebody else’s equipment, you just don’t do what you’d normally do if it was yours. I got his and was flicking it around, not really having a good time. I don’t even think I caught a fish all day long. I got a little more confident about it and I said, “I’m going to give it a try again. I got to get this plug out here.” I flicked it out there and you think that one was bad, you should have seen this one. I’m telling you what. I was so embarrassed. I didn’t say nothing to him. I just started working on it. He noticed I wasn’t fishing again.
He said, “Brother Oliver, what is going on? Did you do it again?”
I said, “Preacher, I told you I’m not good at these bait cast reels.”
He said, “Let me have it. I got this one unloosed. You fish with this one now.”
I said, “Man, are you sure?”
He said, “Yeah, I’m sure.” He worked on that reel for about 20 minutes. Finally I saw him reach in his pocket and I can’t believe he is going to do it. Because it was so tangled up, it just looked awful, he had to take his pocket knife and just cut all the line off the spool and start over brand new all because of me. You talk about tangles!
Do you know what, young people? A lot of teenagers get their lives pretty tangled up. They get their lives so tangled up and so confused, they don’t even know which way is up or down. Tangles. The Bible says here, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;...”
The word also means ‘to be perplexed.’ It means ‘to distract, as with cares.’ Paul, the apostle, warned this young man, Timothy, about the dangers of entanglement. As a matter of fact, he specifically said in II Timothy 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts:...” He was warning him about these entanglements.
Look at I Timothy 6:9-11. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”
Look down at verses 17-19. “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
1. Money. The first tangle that I see young people getting themselves tangled up, snared in, is the tangle of money. I’m not against money. You have to have it to exist today. That’s our economy. I don’t think there’s a preacher here who will tell you that you don’t need money, but you can fall in love with money to such a point that you can’t think of anything else. We have lost some real good teenagers because they fell in love with money. I don’t care how much money you have, it will never be quite enough. The amount of money you have is not going to make you happy.
The devil can get you to fall in love with money, and lose everything of real value in this life. You don’t believe that. Because you don’t believe it, you are going to fall in love with it. It’s going to take you down to destruction, ruin and wreck your life. You are going to put so much stock in having and wanting and desiring money, that’s all you are going to think about. When you get your diploma from a Christian high school you’ll walk off from this platform and then never darken the church doors again. You won’t ever think about Sunday school. You won’t think about youth group. You won’t think about camp. You won’t think about soulwinning and serving God because you’ll give your soul to money.
In the Old Testament, we find the story of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God. Remember Naaman had leprosy and came to the prophet to be healed. He said, “I’ve got these gifts to give you -- gold, silver, and a change of raiment.”
Elisha said, “We can’t be bought. You can’t buy the healing of God, the miracles. I want you to go dip seven times in the dirty Jordan.” Naaman went ahead and did what the prophet had told him to and on that seventh dip he came up and the Bible says his skin was just as soft as a baby. I mean beautiful skin, all the leprosy was gone.
Naaman was headed back home and Gehazi ran to get him, even though the prophet had already said, “No, we don’t want that. You can’t buy that with money.” You can’t purchase the miracles of God. You can’t buy the power of God. But Gehazi was so greedy. He had his eyes on the silver and the raiment. The Bible says in II Kings 5:27, “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.” All because of greed, all because of the love of money.
Paul is telling this young preacher in this passage, “You warn them that are rich in this world. Because you have these riches, there are many temptations that come along with that.” He says, no doubt by observation, he has seen a multitude of men and women drowned in perdition, lives destroyed, no testimony, no marriage, no home, no happiness. The thing that they thought would bring them all the happiness in the world actually brought them destruction. Because they got all tangled up with money -- teenage tangles.
The Bible says in Matthew 19:21-22, “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”
Luke 12:15 says, “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
What happens when a teenager becomes entangled with the love of money? They become independent of their parents’ spending advice. What happens to kids is, because they really don’t have any responsibilities, nothing real pressing, they work and get their money. They want to go out to Walmart or some electronic store. They finally get enough money and they want to go buy some game for their X-Box or Play Station. I’m not against those things, but because you have no responsibilities and you want to become independent of your parents spending advice, they begin to take on this habit. That’s the way they begin to live the rest of their life. They form a habit that goes with them into adult life and marriage, and they just live for money to go buy toys. They get a little money in their pocket and they want to go buy toys. They’ve just got to spend it.
The truth of the matter is I could give an invitation right now and there is no telling how many of you could walk down this aisle and get right with God because that’s the way you are. Every spare dime you have, you think you just have it to spend it. You don’t understand about your mom and dad and taking responsibility to support a family and pay bills.
You don’t understand that we have to pray over it. That’s not my money; that’s God’s money. I have to have God’s okay to spend that money. We are talking about teenage tangles. The desire to have things that you don’t need because teens have no bills to speak of, it creates a bad habit of just buying toys. It makes you self-dependent instead of God dependent. It gets you in a mode or habit of living to accumulate toys instead of handling responsibility. We’re talking about teenage tangles.
By the way, while I’m on it, you have to be careful about your entertainment. That could get to the point where it is lust. All lust is not sexual lust. There are many other lusts. Even the overwhelming desire for the outdoors can become sin. It is a compulsion. It is an overwhelming lust that wants to take over me, that wants to rule me. We are living in a day and time right now where it’s almost to the point where this generation has got a lust of entertainment.
What cracks me up is you get these little, noodle-armed boys. They play those video games and they are good. They play football and on the television screen they are a 265 pound running back that has humongous thighs, arms, and chest. On the video screen, they take the ball and run over everybody. But they cannot decipher the difference between the video and reality. I mean after they finish playing a game, they walk around like they were living in that box. Little noodle arm is walking around and thinks he is that guy on the screen. Come to football camp. We’ll give you a real football and see how you do.
I’m not against those things. My kids have some. But I’m saying they can get to the point where they are just overwhelming. Kids get that money and they just want to go spend it. They get a few dollars in their pocket and they want to go buy some game, some toy, and it translates into life habits and character deficiencies. We are talking about teenage tangles.
How can I tell if I’m tangled up in money? Look and see how your attitude has changed since you started working and making your own money. Look at your tithing record and your faith promise.
A couple weeks ago I was preaching this message in Michigan. A girl came to me and said, “Brother Araiza, I want to tell you a tangled story about my dad. We don’t know how it happened, but it was the craziest thing. Somehow my dad got silly putty tangled up under his armpit.” I have no idea what in the world he was trying to do with it under his arm. I said, “I wish you hadn’t told me that because I have a very vivid imagination.” That’s enough to gag a maggot off a gut wagon. Tangles.
#2. Relationships. I taught this to my children. I’m not against boys and girls knowing each other, but I want them to learn how to build friendships. I want them to be friends with everybody in the youth group. I think that’s the way the Lord intended it to be. I promote that. I like that, but I am against the steady relationship. I’m against that because I have seen it for many years. I’ve been preaching to teenagers ever since I was a teenager.
Listen to what the Bible says. Colossians 3:5 says, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,...” That is very interesting word. That word ‘inordinate affection’ means an affection that is irregular. It is an affection that is out of order. It is an affection that is excessive.
When I go down into the Carolinas and down in the deep south, there is a vine that grows all over the trees. What’s it called? Kudzu vine. Do you know that stuff can literally demolish a forest. It can take over big, old, giant, towering trees; it can take those trees down. Do you know how it does it? It smothers them. It clings around the trunk and around the branches and it just will not allow it to get the nourishment, the thing that it needs to be able to breathe and to grow. Eventually those Kudzu vines will choke out that tree and it will die.
That is the same idea that is mentioned in this passage here -- inordinate affection. It is like a smothering, clinging vine. It’s an affection that is inordinate. It’s overwhelming. It’s compulsive. It is the kind of affection that manipulates and dominates and smothers. It always starts when you single out, when you have these single, steady relationships. Learn to be friends with everybody in the youth group. Learn how to be friends. Learn how to have a boy who is a friend, or a girl who is a friend.
Preacherboys, listen. A young man with the call of God on his life gets his eyes on a little hussy in the youth group and she will completely smother out his desire to preach, his desire to serve God, his desire for a relationship with God. That relationship he’s become so tangled up in, he’ll never get out of it. It’s going to destroy him. Teenage tangles.
Steady teenage relationships lead to this irregular, disorderly, excessive affection. I believe you need to stay away from it. Young people, I love you and I want you to have a fun life, a blessed life. I want you to be fulfilled. I want you to be happy. I want you to be full of joy. The reason I’m preaching what I’m preaching right now is, if you’ll listen to me, I’ll help you and you will have nothing but good memories from your teen years. You can have a happy and fulfilling teenage life with no regrets.
You’ll have nothing but good memories and then God, in God’s will and time, He’ll lead you to the boy or the girl, the young man, the young lady that God wants you to marry. You can live happily ever after, but if you want to make it hard, you just get attached too early with one of these inordinate affections, these smothering relationships. It makes your life hard. It starts confusing your priorities. Instead of just knowing how to get your school work done and work around the house and helping mom and helping dad, you’ll find yourself living for that steady relationship, when you ought to be learning how to do homework. You ought to be learning your Math and English. You ought to be learning how to cook and how to clean up around the house. You ought to be learning how to work on a car, or mow the lawn, those kind of things. You get so attached to these steady relationships that it confuses the priorities, things that are really important in your life time.
I’m thinking right now of a friend of mine. He is a fantastic youth director. If I mentioned his name, many of you would know him. He said, “Brother Oliver, my wife and I were considered the best of the best in our youth group, but Brother Oliver, you are right about steady relationships. Even though we were considered the best of the best, we could not handle it.” It just puts too much pressure on you. You are just not ready for that. You are not ready for those emotions and passions. That is for after marriage, but a steady relationship creates an environment for that.
A preacher friend of mine had a tragedy in his church. The boy didn’t kill himself, but he almost did. He ran in the path of a vehicle because he wanted it to kill him. His pastor asked him, “Why in the world would you want to kill yourself?”
“My girlfriend broke up with me.”
I know that you think you would never do that, but I’m going to tell you, young people, teenage tangles will tangle up your mind and your emotions where you don’t even think straight. It messes up your values. “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” I could give story after story after story of teenagers who got tangled up in a serious relationship like I’m saying right now, and it was a tragic mistake. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:” They are relationships that smother out everyone else and they are not right. I love you, teenagers. I’m trying to help you. I hope you’ll listen to me.
#3. Ambitions. You get tangled up in your own ambition. Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” You know, young people, we can’t get real attached to this old world here. We have to live in it, but we don’t have to be in love with it. Set your affections on things above. When you are wrapped up in your own ambitions, when you’ve got your life already planned out and don’t have a desire for God’s will, here is what is going to happen. Number one, you won’t give the Lord a chance. When you are wrapped up in your own ambitions, you won’t give the Lord a chance for anything.
I preach and I believe this with all of my heart. Once you get saved and you get baptized, one of the very next decisions that you need to make when God reveals the truth to you is a decision that I call consecration. Romans 12:1-2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” I believe that is an actual decision that a person needs to make when they present their bodies as a living sacrifice. It’s a conscious decision.
I want you to imagine two presents or gifts. We’ll wrap them up. Two presents, bows, name tags, everything. One of them said, “Salvation.” I’m saved today because of God’s present to me. “...the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now that I know the Lord as my Saviour, now I want to present my life back to Him because I love Him. It’s not the divine call. It is not a call to be a preacher. It’s not a call to leadership. It’s not a divine call of God like a pastor, an evangelist, or a missionary called to full time service. It’s me giving myself, my life, my future, my plans to God, for Him to use in any way He chooses, and trusting that what He chooses for me is what is best.
God has wonderful things in store for your future. Don’t let it all be destroyed by these common teen tangles.
The Bible says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;...” It’s talking about getting tangled up. No man that is going to be a warrior for the Lord Jesus Christ is going to entangle himself with the affairs of this life. If he does, he cannot please the One that has called him to be a soldier.
When I think about this word ‘tangles,’ stories flood my mind. For eight summers I’ve travelled with Dr. Joe Boyd, from the age of 15 until the year I got married. Then I worked for Dr. Randy Taylor as a youth evangelist for eight years. When we would go to revival meetings, both of us would come in, Brother Taylor would preach to the adult crowd, and I would do the children’s services. Then I would do a teen revival after the service. On Friday night and Sunday nights, we would have activities. Every Friday night we’d have a bonfire service and on Sunday night we’d have a pizza blast. For many years of my life, every Sunday night, I ended up eating pizza. You would think that I would have gotten sick of it, but actually I acquired an addiction!
We were in Texas having this bonfire service. I had already preached. Decisions had been made. We roasted some hotdogs and somebody brought a bag of marshmallows. I don’t know about you, but I like roasted marshmallows. I like to get them to where they are just a little brown, kind of toasted all the way around. Then you eat the cooked part off of it and you roast it again. Then you just gobble it down.
Well, one kid had a stick with a marshmallow on the end of it and it caught on fire. He tried to blow it out, but it wouldn’t go out, so he started swinging it round and round. It looked like a torch. Finally it went out, but he kept swinging it. All of a sudden that hot marshmallow flew off the end of that stick and hit a girl in the head. When that marshmallow hit her in the back of the head, she thought a bat had hit her, so she started screaming and batting at it. The more she did that, that marshmallow got all tangled up in her hair. You talk about a tangled up mess. It was awful. We will talk about some tangles today.
Second Timothy was a letter written to a young preacher. As you study the books of I and II Timothy you’ll learn some things about this young man, Timothy. He wasn’t as young as you are, but he was a young preacher. We find that he was kind of a sickly man, with health problems. We find out also that he was very timid. Paul said to Timothy, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7)
Young people, if there is anything I desire for my children and for you as Christian teenagers, don’t be intimidated by this world. It’s really a shame that these teenagers that have their hair all punked out and spiked and dyed weird colors, with all these earrings and piercings and tattoos, and they just proudly walk through the malls and shopping centers looking for attention like that every day of their life and they are not ashamed of it. Meanwhile, teenagers who have decency and morality and the right kind of standards and want to live holy have become so timid about it. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The apostle, the preacher here, was trying to get this young man to not be so afraid and backward and timid.
Evidently Timothy was very youthful in his appearance, but we know that he was a God-called, gifted preacher and teacher. Timothy was saved during Paul’s first missionary journey and he began travelling with Paul on his second missionary trip. He was faithful in every single assignment that the old preacher had given him.
Chapter two alone is very important. The Apostle Paul calls Timothy ‘a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’ The apostle, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, lists keys to having an enduring and successful ministry.
Paul teaches him how to have a reproducing ministry in chapter 2, verses 1-2. In verses 3-13, Paul teaches him how to have an enduring ministry. We need teenagers that are just going to stay by the stuff. Don’t give in. Don’t throw in the towel. Just stay faithful. In verses 14-18, he tells him to have a studying ministry. Young people, I can’t stress how important it is that you need to be reading and studying your Bibles. Your convictions will never be as strong as those convictions that are taught to you by God. The old timers used to call it ‘Spirit-taught,’ where the Spirit of God teaches you. There are convictions that I came to the realization of when I was a young person. I’m telling you the Spirit of God can teach you. Then he tells him how to have a holy ministry ending up the chapter. The purpose of this letter was to encourage Timothy to persevere, to keep on going. It really could be called a combat manual because much of it warns him that his preaching is going to come under attack. Paul says to Timothy, “You be faithful.”
Look with me at chapter four, verses 1-5, I love these verses. They just fire me up every time I read them. Paul says to Timothy, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Boy, those verses just fire me up. When I read them, I’m ready to charge Hell with a wet mop.
That’s what they were intended to do for this young preacher here. Paul was giving him some information that was like combat training. This book could be considered a combat manual because combat means standing in the face of opposition. Paul was telling this young preacher that there will be people that you will meet; they are going to oppose you. Everything that you want to do, they are going to oppose. They are going to laugh and mock at your preaching. They are going to laugh at the way you live your life and laugh at the decisions that you make, but he is saying to him, “Don’t you worry about it. You just persevere. Whether it is popular or not popular, you preach it. You teach it. Stick with the Bible.”
It’s a combat manual because he is teaching them that there are forces that are struggling against each other. What we are talking about is a spiritual struggle. It is spiritual warfare. That’s what the apostle is talking about. Paul reminds Timothy that the Lord has chosen him to be a soldier and soldiers fight. Soldiers fight for freedom. Soldiers, even though they may have fear, they are able to harness their fear and do what they have to do, do what they were trained to do. Whether they are afraid or not, they are going to do it. They are fighting soldiers.
Paul reminds Timothy that he has been chosen as a soldier. Combat means opposition. He says, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” That’s an exciting verse to me. I like that kind of stuff. I love the outdoors. I love guns. I love knives. I love bow hunting. I like blood and guts, and all that kind of stuff. I gravitate to that. We need some of you, young people, to realize that we are not on a Sunday school picnic. The devil wants to destroy your life and your usefulness for God, and he’ll do everything he possibly can to entangle you, to trap you, and to destroy your testimony.
For the message to have a real impact on you, I want you to see yourself as Timothy. You’ve got to find some way to put yourself in Timothy’s place. There are some things in his life that are similar to yours.
#1. He was young, just like you are young.
#2. You are living in a time when people are turning away from truth, and so was Timothy. By the way, you right now are under someone’s ministry like Timothy was under the ministry of Paul, and do you know what your leaders are trying to do? They are trying to get you ready for some hardship and some combat. They are trying to equip you and teach you to know who the enemy is.
I’m not the enemy. Your mom and dad are not the enemy. Your preacher is not the enemy. I’m telling you, young people, the devil is your enemy. This young man, Timothy, was under someone’s ministry that was trying to get him to realize that he had an enemy and there was a battle going on. There is combat. There is struggle. Forces are struggling against forces.
#3 His home was somewhat divided. Some of your homes are divided. His was divided in the sense that his father was an unbelieving Greek and his mother was a saved Jew. People didn’t like those kind of combinations back in those days. When you stop and think about him, he had a lot of things in common with most of you.
Notice these words. The Bible says, ‘endure hardness.’ Notice the words ‘good soldier.’ They all have to do with combat and fighting. Notice the words ‘no man that warreth.’ Notice the words ‘entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.’
There was an advertisement that was popular a while back about the Army National Guard. Many paratroopers were parachuting down from the sky. Bombs were exploding. You could hear the sounds and see the flashes in the background. The camera centered in on one paratrooper coming down. As this paratrooper descends into the battlefield, all of a sudden his cell phone starts ringing. He is feeling around in his jumpsuit and finally pulls out his cell phone. He opens it up and he begins to talk to it and it is his boss, who calls his name and says, “Man, why haven’t you done this? I need you in this meeting here. We need these papers here. What about that report?”
The paratrooper is trying to say, “Man, I’m in the Army National Guard.” The whole thing was really about the bosses who employed these soldiers, the Army National Guard, to give them a break. If they are called to do service for their country, then don’t entangle them with the affairs of this life. While a soldier is at war, he really can’t be preoccupied with the cares of civilian life.
The Bible says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” The word entangle means to twist. It means to interweave. It means ‘not easily separated.’ It means ‘confused and disordered’ as rope, yarn or thread. When a soldier gets preoccupied, when he gets bogged down with the affairs and details of every day life, then he’s not really able to perform like his comrades need him to perform because he is preoccupied. When a soldier gets tangled up with the affairs of this life, he’s not going to be able to do what he’s been trained to do.
I was holding a meeting down in Arkansas and the preacher said, “Brother Araiza, do you like to fish?”
I said, “Preacher, I love to fish. I like to fish with the hook and the Book.”
He said, “Would you like to go fishing? Maybe we can plan one morning to go fishing.”
I said, “Brother, that would be great. It’s been a long time since I got to do something like that.”
He told me what time he was going to come by. I was real excited. He had a pretty nice boat and some good gear. He picked me up. I got in his pickup and we went over to this lake. I was sipping on a cup of coffee and eating a donut. Everybody knows that’s where the hidden power of the Holy Spirit is found in the morning, a cup of coffee, a donut, and a King James Bible.
We pulled up to the lake. There were all kinds of trees and stumps in the lake and there was a real light fog across the top of it. You could see fish hitting the top of it now and then. It just looked so inviting. I said, “This is going to be great.” I didn’t have any equipment with me of my own. I had to use all of his. We got into his boat and strapped on those vests, fancy ones that have pockets. He started up his motor and that motor boat shot across the water. We got to where we were going to start fishing first and he handed me a rod and reel to use.
When I saw that rod and reel, I knew I was in trouble because I’m just not real good with the kind of equipment he had. He had what you call a bait cast. I’ve fished all of my life with spin cast. That’s the kind I like. It’s just a very light lure, that light weight line. You can just flick it out there. That’s what I like, but the pros use those bait cast. We used to call them open face. If you know how to do them, they are good. You’ve got to use your thumb. When that bait hits the water, your thumb has to hit that spool at the same time or very close to it. If you don’t, the bait hits the water, the line stops, but the spool doesn’t. If you don’t stop it with your thumb, it back lines. When the preacher handed me that I thought to myself, “This is going to be a bad day. I hate these things.” I said, “Brother, is that all you have?”
He said, “That’s all I’ve got.”
I said, “I don’t know if you want me to fish with this thing. I might mess it up.”
He said, “It will be all right.” I can’t even enjoy this fishing trip because I’ve got to watch my thumb and the tip of my rod and the lure all at the same time. I’m trying to drop these crank baits over by those stumps. I’m flicking it and I’m watching my thumb, spool, and trying to time it. It’s not even fun. If I had the spin cast, I could throw it anywhere I want.
I kept at it and got to feeling like I was getting a little bit better so I said, “This 20 feet from the boat is not going to work here. I got to get that thing out there.” I tried and I didn’t make it. I looked down at that spool and it looked like a bird’s nest. I’m telling you, I’ve never seen so much line. I kind of kept my back to the preacher as I was working on that thing there. He noticed that I hadn’t cast anything in a while.
“Brother Oliver, what is going on?”
I said, “Oh, nothing preacher, it’s all right.”
“Man, did you tangle up that line.”
I said, “Well, Preacher, I told you I’m not good at these things.”
He said, “Here, I’ll take it. I can get it out. Here you take mine.”
“Take yours? Are you sure you want to do this?”
He said, “It will be okay.” In a couple of minutes, he had that thing untangled. I am usually pretty gifted at getting tangles out of stuff like that, but with somebody else’s equipment, you just don’t do what you’d normally do if it was yours. I got his and was flicking it around, not really having a good time. I don’t even think I caught a fish all day long. I got a little more confident about it and I said, “I’m going to give it a try again. I got to get this plug out here.” I flicked it out there and you think that one was bad, you should have seen this one. I’m telling you what. I was so embarrassed. I didn’t say nothing to him. I just started working on it. He noticed I wasn’t fishing again.
He said, “Brother Oliver, what is going on? Did you do it again?”
I said, “Preacher, I told you I’m not good at these bait cast reels.”
He said, “Let me have it. I got this one unloosed. You fish with this one now.”
I said, “Man, are you sure?”
He said, “Yeah, I’m sure.” He worked on that reel for about 20 minutes. Finally I saw him reach in his pocket and I can’t believe he is going to do it. Because it was so tangled up, it just looked awful, he had to take his pocket knife and just cut all the line off the spool and start over brand new all because of me. You talk about tangles!
Do you know what, young people? A lot of teenagers get their lives pretty tangled up. They get their lives so tangled up and so confused, they don’t even know which way is up or down. Tangles. The Bible says here, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;...”
The word also means ‘to be perplexed.’ It means ‘to distract, as with cares.’ Paul, the apostle, warned this young man, Timothy, about the dangers of entanglement. As a matter of fact, he specifically said in II Timothy 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts:...” He was warning him about these entanglements.
Look at I Timothy 6:9-11. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”
Look down at verses 17-19. “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
1. Money. The first tangle that I see young people getting themselves tangled up, snared in, is the tangle of money. I’m not against money. You have to have it to exist today. That’s our economy. I don’t think there’s a preacher here who will tell you that you don’t need money, but you can fall in love with money to such a point that you can’t think of anything else. We have lost some real good teenagers because they fell in love with money. I don’t care how much money you have, it will never be quite enough. The amount of money you have is not going to make you happy.
The devil can get you to fall in love with money, and lose everything of real value in this life. You don’t believe that. Because you don’t believe it, you are going to fall in love with it. It’s going to take you down to destruction, ruin and wreck your life. You are going to put so much stock in having and wanting and desiring money, that’s all you are going to think about. When you get your diploma from a Christian high school you’ll walk off from this platform and then never darken the church doors again. You won’t ever think about Sunday school. You won’t think about youth group. You won’t think about camp. You won’t think about soulwinning and serving God because you’ll give your soul to money.
In the Old Testament, we find the story of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God. Remember Naaman had leprosy and came to the prophet to be healed. He said, “I’ve got these gifts to give you -- gold, silver, and a change of raiment.”
Elisha said, “We can’t be bought. You can’t buy the healing of God, the miracles. I want you to go dip seven times in the dirty Jordan.” Naaman went ahead and did what the prophet had told him to and on that seventh dip he came up and the Bible says his skin was just as soft as a baby. I mean beautiful skin, all the leprosy was gone.
Naaman was headed back home and Gehazi ran to get him, even though the prophet had already said, “No, we don’t want that. You can’t buy that with money.” You can’t purchase the miracles of God. You can’t buy the power of God. But Gehazi was so greedy. He had his eyes on the silver and the raiment. The Bible says in II Kings 5:27, “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.” All because of greed, all because of the love of money.
Paul is telling this young preacher in this passage, “You warn them that are rich in this world. Because you have these riches, there are many temptations that come along with that.” He says, no doubt by observation, he has seen a multitude of men and women drowned in perdition, lives destroyed, no testimony, no marriage, no home, no happiness. The thing that they thought would bring them all the happiness in the world actually brought them destruction. Because they got all tangled up with money -- teenage tangles.
The Bible says in Matthew 19:21-22, “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”
Luke 12:15 says, “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
What happens when a teenager becomes entangled with the love of money? They become independent of their parents’ spending advice. What happens to kids is, because they really don’t have any responsibilities, nothing real pressing, they work and get their money. They want to go out to Walmart or some electronic store. They finally get enough money and they want to go buy some game for their X-Box or Play Station. I’m not against those things, but because you have no responsibilities and you want to become independent of your parents spending advice, they begin to take on this habit. That’s the way they begin to live the rest of their life. They form a habit that goes with them into adult life and marriage, and they just live for money to go buy toys. They get a little money in their pocket and they want to go buy toys. They’ve just got to spend it.
The truth of the matter is I could give an invitation right now and there is no telling how many of you could walk down this aisle and get right with God because that’s the way you are. Every spare dime you have, you think you just have it to spend it. You don’t understand about your mom and dad and taking responsibility to support a family and pay bills.
You don’t understand that we have to pray over it. That’s not my money; that’s God’s money. I have to have God’s okay to spend that money. We are talking about teenage tangles. The desire to have things that you don’t need because teens have no bills to speak of, it creates a bad habit of just buying toys. It makes you self-dependent instead of God dependent. It gets you in a mode or habit of living to accumulate toys instead of handling responsibility. We’re talking about teenage tangles.
By the way, while I’m on it, you have to be careful about your entertainment. That could get to the point where it is lust. All lust is not sexual lust. There are many other lusts. Even the overwhelming desire for the outdoors can become sin. It is a compulsion. It is an overwhelming lust that wants to take over me, that wants to rule me. We are living in a day and time right now where it’s almost to the point where this generation has got a lust of entertainment.
What cracks me up is you get these little, noodle-armed boys. They play those video games and they are good. They play football and on the television screen they are a 265 pound running back that has humongous thighs, arms, and chest. On the video screen, they take the ball and run over everybody. But they cannot decipher the difference between the video and reality. I mean after they finish playing a game, they walk around like they were living in that box. Little noodle arm is walking around and thinks he is that guy on the screen. Come to football camp. We’ll give you a real football and see how you do.
I’m not against those things. My kids have some. But I’m saying they can get to the point where they are just overwhelming. Kids get that money and they just want to go spend it. They get a few dollars in their pocket and they want to go buy some game, some toy, and it translates into life habits and character deficiencies. We are talking about teenage tangles.
How can I tell if I’m tangled up in money? Look and see how your attitude has changed since you started working and making your own money. Look at your tithing record and your faith promise.
A couple weeks ago I was preaching this message in Michigan. A girl came to me and said, “Brother Araiza, I want to tell you a tangled story about my dad. We don’t know how it happened, but it was the craziest thing. Somehow my dad got silly putty tangled up under his armpit.” I have no idea what in the world he was trying to do with it under his arm. I said, “I wish you hadn’t told me that because I have a very vivid imagination.” That’s enough to gag a maggot off a gut wagon. Tangles.
#2. Relationships. I taught this to my children. I’m not against boys and girls knowing each other, but I want them to learn how to build friendships. I want them to be friends with everybody in the youth group. I think that’s the way the Lord intended it to be. I promote that. I like that, but I am against the steady relationship. I’m against that because I have seen it for many years. I’ve been preaching to teenagers ever since I was a teenager.
Listen to what the Bible says. Colossians 3:5 says, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,...” That is very interesting word. That word ‘inordinate affection’ means an affection that is irregular. It is an affection that is out of order. It is an affection that is excessive.
When I go down into the Carolinas and down in the deep south, there is a vine that grows all over the trees. What’s it called? Kudzu vine. Do you know that stuff can literally demolish a forest. It can take over big, old, giant, towering trees; it can take those trees down. Do you know how it does it? It smothers them. It clings around the trunk and around the branches and it just will not allow it to get the nourishment, the thing that it needs to be able to breathe and to grow. Eventually those Kudzu vines will choke out that tree and it will die.
That is the same idea that is mentioned in this passage here -- inordinate affection. It is like a smothering, clinging vine. It’s an affection that is inordinate. It’s overwhelming. It’s compulsive. It is the kind of affection that manipulates and dominates and smothers. It always starts when you single out, when you have these single, steady relationships. Learn to be friends with everybody in the youth group. Learn how to be friends. Learn how to have a boy who is a friend, or a girl who is a friend.
Preacherboys, listen. A young man with the call of God on his life gets his eyes on a little hussy in the youth group and she will completely smother out his desire to preach, his desire to serve God, his desire for a relationship with God. That relationship he’s become so tangled up in, he’ll never get out of it. It’s going to destroy him. Teenage tangles.
Steady teenage relationships lead to this irregular, disorderly, excessive affection. I believe you need to stay away from it. Young people, I love you and I want you to have a fun life, a blessed life. I want you to be fulfilled. I want you to be happy. I want you to be full of joy. The reason I’m preaching what I’m preaching right now is, if you’ll listen to me, I’ll help you and you will have nothing but good memories from your teen years. You can have a happy and fulfilling teenage life with no regrets.
You’ll have nothing but good memories and then God, in God’s will and time, He’ll lead you to the boy or the girl, the young man, the young lady that God wants you to marry. You can live happily ever after, but if you want to make it hard, you just get attached too early with one of these inordinate affections, these smothering relationships. It makes your life hard. It starts confusing your priorities. Instead of just knowing how to get your school work done and work around the house and helping mom and helping dad, you’ll find yourself living for that steady relationship, when you ought to be learning how to do homework. You ought to be learning your Math and English. You ought to be learning how to cook and how to clean up around the house. You ought to be learning how to work on a car, or mow the lawn, those kind of things. You get so attached to these steady relationships that it confuses the priorities, things that are really important in your life time.
I’m thinking right now of a friend of mine. He is a fantastic youth director. If I mentioned his name, many of you would know him. He said, “Brother Oliver, my wife and I were considered the best of the best in our youth group, but Brother Oliver, you are right about steady relationships. Even though we were considered the best of the best, we could not handle it.” It just puts too much pressure on you. You are just not ready for that. You are not ready for those emotions and passions. That is for after marriage, but a steady relationship creates an environment for that.
A preacher friend of mine had a tragedy in his church. The boy didn’t kill himself, but he almost did. He ran in the path of a vehicle because he wanted it to kill him. His pastor asked him, “Why in the world would you want to kill yourself?”
“My girlfriend broke up with me.”
I know that you think you would never do that, but I’m going to tell you, young people, teenage tangles will tangle up your mind and your emotions where you don’t even think straight. It messes up your values. “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” I could give story after story after story of teenagers who got tangled up in a serious relationship like I’m saying right now, and it was a tragic mistake. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:” They are relationships that smother out everyone else and they are not right. I love you, teenagers. I’m trying to help you. I hope you’ll listen to me.
#3. Ambitions. You get tangled up in your own ambition. Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” You know, young people, we can’t get real attached to this old world here. We have to live in it, but we don’t have to be in love with it. Set your affections on things above. When you are wrapped up in your own ambitions, when you’ve got your life already planned out and don’t have a desire for God’s will, here is what is going to happen. Number one, you won’t give the Lord a chance. When you are wrapped up in your own ambitions, you won’t give the Lord a chance for anything.
I preach and I believe this with all of my heart. Once you get saved and you get baptized, one of the very next decisions that you need to make when God reveals the truth to you is a decision that I call consecration. Romans 12:1-2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” I believe that is an actual decision that a person needs to make when they present their bodies as a living sacrifice. It’s a conscious decision.
I want you to imagine two presents or gifts. We’ll wrap them up. Two presents, bows, name tags, everything. One of them said, “Salvation.” I’m saved today because of God’s present to me. “...the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now that I know the Lord as my Saviour, now I want to present my life back to Him because I love Him. It’s not the divine call. It is not a call to be a preacher. It’s not a call to leadership. It’s not a divine call of God like a pastor, an evangelist, or a missionary called to full time service. It’s me giving myself, my life, my future, my plans to God, for Him to use in any way He chooses, and trusting that what He chooses for me is what is best.
God has wonderful things in store for your future. Don’t let it all be destroyed by these common teen tangles.
