Youthful and Insightful

[Intro Voice-over] Churchisms and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] The goodness for his mercies, for his grace, for his help. It has been him all through. And with him, it will yet be him on every side in every way in the name of Jesus Christ. We thank our God again for this Singles Club, and we trust in him that it will be a time of edification and instruction as we fellowship together in his presence. Let's have a word of prayer as we start for today. Almighty God, we are grateful unto you. We bless your holy name. What a mighty God we serve. Lord, you are mighty in battle. The Bible says the Lord our God in the midst of us is mighty. We thank you for the month of January, February, March, April, May, June, July. We thank you for how you kept us through these six months and you have brought us to the month of July. We are so grateful, our Father. Thank you for life. Thank you for grace. Thank you for all that you are to us. Blessed be your name, our God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, as we all connect together again this morning, our brethren who are joining us online and those of us who are here physically, as we fellowship together again this morning, Lord, we pray, let your Spirit work within us in the name of Jesus. Lord God Almighty, instruct our hearts. Lord, lighten our darkness. Lord our God, we pray, give us direction in line with your purposes over our lives in Jesus' name. Thank you, eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name, our God, in Jesus' name we pray. [Speaker 2] This morning we want to consider a very important topic for our young men and women again and for couples who may be joining us. We believe that you'll be able to pick one or two lessons from all that we have to discuss today among our singles. We are looking at "Youthful but Insightful." A man can be youthful and at the same time such a man can still be insightful. A man can be youthful and yet possessing insight. What do we mean by insight? Insight talks about that which has to do with the art of seeing things intuitively, ability to have accurate observation, deduction, penetration, discernment, and perception. Ability to be able to see things through and through. Why are we looking at the topic "Youthful but Insightful"? It is because when you look into scriptures, there is an understanding that at the younger ages an individual has more tendency towards being lustful. That is why the Bible says, "Avoid youthful lust." It's not as if adults don't lust. After all, David was an adult. Potiphar's wife was an adult. But there is something about youth and reckless living. There is something about youthfulness and the tendency towards being lustful. And so that is why the Bible says, "Avoid youthful lust." So youthfulness again when you look at Ecclesiastes, the last chapter, the Bible says, "Remember your Creator while you are young." Some scripture says, "Don't allow the excitement of being young." Some translation says, "Don't allow the excitement of being young make you forget your Creator." There is this understanding that the excitement of being young are tendencies that could make an individual forget his Creator. And that is why we are trying to look at this matter. Youthful but insightful. A man can be youthful and yet be very, very insightful. And the word insightful has so many applications when we look into scriptures. But my concern today is to look at insightfulness in a particular direction. We can look at insightfulness, we should look at the book of Proverbs, the book of James. There are diverse ways to look at insightfulness. But for our discussion this morning and within the limit of the time that we are having, I want to limit insightfulness to ability to hate evil, ability to love righteousness and hate wickedness. Ability to despise, to have hatred for evil. It is in that direction I'll be looking at the matter of insightfulness. My focus this morning is that a life can be youthful and yet instead of loving unrighteousness, that life can hate wickedness, it can hate evil. And that is what we want to look at. Why are we trying to look at this today? It's because what we see more around us, particularly among our youths today, is the opposite. Is youthfulness but lacking insight. Lacking insight. That is the common thing. In doing that, I want us to look at some scriptures. I want us to just quickly reflect on some scriptures. If you look at, let me take it from where I left it last month, the month of June. Let's look at the book of Job. Let's look at something there. That Job 28 again that we considered last month. Look at that scripture, Job 28:28. That's the last verse of that chapter. It says, "And to man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, this is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.'" So I'm looking at insightfulness in this direction. I'm looking at a young man having understanding. How do you know that a young man actually has understanding? The Bible says, "To depart from evil is understanding." When you see a young man that is engrossed or engages in things that are evil, in things that are contrary to uprightness and righteousness, the Bible says such a young man lacks understanding. He lacks insight. He is not a young man that is insightful. So as a young person, do you realize that to really know whether you have insight, to know whether you are a young man that has insight, that really understands life, one thing that will be prominent in your life is the insight that makes you to depart from evil? Once you are not an individual that detects evil, then it means as a young man you lack insight. You don't have insight. And you see, the point is this. Ordinarily a young man may be very intelligent, but he may not have insight. Intelligence should not be equated with insight. They are two different things. Let me give a good example with some recent happenings on the social media. The latest of killer lovers is that of Ataga. Chidinma and the man Ataga. If you look at that scenario, you will see the young man. It's a successful young man. When we talk about money or wealth, he has been able to make that. You will say he's a smart young man. We'll say he's a smart young man, he's an intelligent young man, he's a successful young man. But with all of that, you notice that he does not have insight. He lacks insight. If a man does not lack insight, he will not leave his family somewhere and children and be playing around with one teenager, be playing around with one small girl in an hotel with one 300 level girl in an hotel. Do you call that insight? You can see that he lacks understanding. So I'm trying to make you understand that a man may be intelligent and be seemingly successful in some aspects of life, but it is not the same thing with having insight. They are two different things. No matter how resourceful a young man may be, no matter how gifted a young person may be, no matter how seemingly brilliant and intelligent a young person may be, once he lacks this insight, go and mark him, he will be a wasted life at the end of the day. Discovery that what actually sustains and bring a lasting foundation for anything that a man has is this insight that we are talking about. This direction of insight where a young man can depart from evil. Once a young man lacks this, once he lacks this dimension of insight, it's just a matter of time. It's just an accident that is about to happen or an accident that will soon happen. That's the truth about it. Why are we considering this matter and why are we looking at it very seriously, particularly in relation to our walk with God? If you look at Proverbs 15:8, the Bible says, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight." Why are we looking at this "Youthful but Insightful"? Why is it important that you should be youthful but insightful? Is that if a young man or a young woman is busy with his life even making sacrifices to God, he's not even busy doing some useless things outside. If that young man is busy making sacrifices to God, but he lacks the insight of departing from evil, the Bible says even sacrifices made to God is an abomination. Whatever he seems to be sacrificing to God, whatever he seems to be doing for God, as far as God is concerned, that thing is an abomination to God. So what I'm trying to say is that once a young man, once a life is youthful but not insightful, his life is a labor lost. Whatever labor he's laboring unto God is a labor lost. And secondly, it is not only that the labor is a loss, the important thing also is that even that labor is something that provokes the anger of God. It's an abomination to him. So you can see why we are looking at this matter. Youthful but insightful. I don't know what labor you have in the vineyard. I don't know what work you seem to be doing for God. I don't know what sacrifice you seem to be making here and there. I don't know how you are laboring, gifted, doing so many things for the Lord. But I truly want to announce to you that if you lack this dimension of insight, honestly you are just a wasted life. And in the contrariwise, look at what the Bible says in that verse. It says, "But the prayer of the upright is his delight." Isn't it an interesting thing? Somebody is sacrificing to God, it's an abomination. Somebody is making request from God, it's a delight. He's trying to make you see how much God is interested in our youth being insightful. God is interested. God wants you as a young person, God wants you as a young man, God wants you as a young woman, one of the strong desire of God over your life is not just for you to labor for God, it's for you to be upright before God. When you are upright and you make request, you are a delight to God. When you lack insight and you do wickedly, when you make sacrifice to God, you are an abomination to him. So youthful but insightful is a strong thing for our generation. Why are we considering this topic? Look at another scripture, Psalm 97:10. Look at instruction. What does it says here? "You who love the Lord, hate evil." If you love the Lord, what's the instruction? "Hate evil." Are you seeing something? So you notice that once this insight is not there, it'll be difficult to say that a young man loves the Lord. It's a contradiction. The love of a young man for the Lord is measured by the level of hatred he has for evil. Once this thing is not in you, I'm talking about this insight, hatred for evil, hatred, I'm not just talking of disliking evil. I'm not just talking of avoiding evil. All those ones they are the consequence of hating it. I'm talking of hating evil. That is the insight that we are talking about. Every young man must develop this thing. If you don't develop it, I promise you you will not last. You must develop hatred for evil. That is the insight I'm talking to you about. Insight, hatred, hatred, hatred. Beg God for it. Cry God for it. Pray God for it. Hatred for evil. If you don't have it, I am telling you, no matter what you think you are gathering today, I am announcing to you, you will not last in those things. If you look at what follows in that scripture, he says, "You who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the soul of his saint." Are you seeing that? The Lord preserve the souls of his saint. When a man loves the Lord and hates evil, the Lord have a way of preserving him. May you be preserved in the name of Jesus. You will not be cut down, you will not be cut short in the name of Jesus. May the eyes of the Lord watch over you. And I pray the sun of your life will not set at noon. You will last in the name of Jesus. But these are just some fundamental practical things to note about life. Not every young man understand life, particularly in this direction. The average young man today don't hate evil. There is a love for evil. There is a gentle dislikeness for it. Like a young man was saying sometimes ago I was in a meeting. He said, "Actually sir, it is good to be honest, but sir you know you cannot always be honest. Sometimes one may find himself, sir you understand sir." He's trying to explain the fact that yes, we should hate evil, but there's still some element of love for it. What I'm talking about that there is a dimension of understanding that you must pray God to develop. That dimension is not just disliking evil. It's not just not wanting to do evil. Rather we call it hatred for evil. Hatred. You hate it. You fight it. You confront it. You expose it. It's not only that you don't tolerate it. You also expose it, you fight it. I'm going through scriptures. I'm going to show you before I come to three biblical example of men who were youthful but insightful. Three biblical example. Young people that were youthful but insightful. And you will see how these people lasted in their calling. May you not be wasted in the name of Jesus. I'm going to show you some serious spiritual things. No matter how it looks like the thing is going, you can be sure if there is no foundation for something, it will crash. The first thing to do about anything is to lay foundation. I just imagine a man begin to because he want to build so fast just got to his site, no digging, no foundation. He just began to place block on the grasses and they are using mortar to join everything together and the bricklayers are building and he began to put iron, everything is going on. Please, what is the end of their story? May that not be your end in Jesus' name. There is a foundation that heaven must lay if anything will last in your life. The Bible says in Second Timothy 2:19, "Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are His,' and, 'Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'" Please note, the Bible says this is the solid foundation. It is the foundation. Do you know what that means as a young man? If you truly belongs to God, the first foundation heaven will lay in your life is to depart from iniquity. That is the first work of grace that heaven will do. If we have not made you to hate iniquity, we have not begun to really build over your life, because we have not laid foundation. Whatever seems to be going on is not reality yet. You can't say a man is building for real who have not laid foundation, but he keeps bringing cement, glass, window, cables to site. Have that man begin building? No, he's just bringing materials. So if you have not laid this foundation, we are still gathering materials over your life. We have not started building. If the building in your life want to start, the first thing about your life is that a foundation will be laid, and that foundation will have this inscription: hatred for iniquity. No matter how it looks like the thing is going, you can be sure if there is no foundation for something, it will crash. The first thing to do about anything is to lay foundation. I just imagine a man because he want to build so fast, just got to his site, no digging, no foundation, he just began to place block on the grasses and they began to use mortar to join everything together. What is the end of their story? It will crash. There is a foundation that heaven must lay. Hatred for wickedness. I call it foundational insight or foundational understanding. Solomon put it in another way. He says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Others say the beginning of wisdom. You know what that means? A man have not truly begin to be wise if the fear of God is not there. There is no wisdom in that man. I'm saying that what we need is being youthful and being insightful. Can I make you quickly see some quick biblical example? And I'll take the very first, very popular one that we are very, very familiar with. Showing insight in that man. And that man was Daniel. That young man was Daniel. Look at Daniel 1:6, "Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego." Look at what the Bible says. It says, "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and goodwill to the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, 'I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are of your age? Then you will endanger my head before the king.' So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 'Please test your servant for ten days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies. And as you see fit, so deal with your servant.' So he consented with them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days, their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies." What am I trying to make you see in this place? I'm showing you something about four young men. The king wanted to train them and they are to eat from the king's table. But of course, these are food that have been offered to idols. And so these young men, they were not willing to eat this thing. But I want to ask you today. How many young men will be served shawarma, chicken peri peri, five-alive, everything flowing on the table and say, "No, just give me vegetables and water"? How many young men can exercise this kind of discipline? How many of our youth today can exercise this kind of understanding? There was hatred for iniquity. And that hatred could be displayed. You can see how it produced itself in discipline. Discipline not to defile themselves. How will delicacies be flowing on the table? Even for some of our young men today, even if they are fasting, they may forget that they are fasting. They will have finished eating what was offered before they remember that oh, I'm fasting today. I'm supposed to be fasting. Delicacies on the table and yet, these young men, they were insightful. They were youthful, but they were insightful. May you be full of insight. At the end of the day, do you see how these young men lasted in that kingdom? Daniel served three monarchs. He served the first, he served the second, he served the third. Daniel lasted till good old age. As they were changing kingdoms and new kings were coming, those kings could not replace Daniel. They wanted him there. Youthful but insightful. These are youthful people. Yes, they were full of insight. On the contrariwise, I want to just mention this as we close this morning. Look at Samson. Youthful, graceful, powerful, anointed, but insightless. Look at how that man wasted, look at how he mortgaged everything. Look at how he mortgaged the investment of God over his life. Because he lacks something. No hatred. He lacked that insight. May you not mortgage the calling of God on your life. May you not mortgage the investment of God on your life. May you not mortgage the grace of God on your life. May you not mortgage that which God want to do with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Wherever you are listening to me this morning, you need to go into prayers, begin to talk to the Lord. Begin to talk to the Lord wherever you are. Lord, I want to be youthful and insightful. I don't want to be youthful and insightless like Samson. I want to be like men like Daniel. I want to be like Elijah. I want to be like Joseph. I want to be like these kind of people. Youth that have hatred for iniquity. Hatred for wickedness. Talk to the Lord wherever you are. And if you are there listening to me but you have not given your life to Jesus, it's an opportunity to do so. Why not look at what we are saying? You cannot get into this except you have a relationship with Jesus. That was why last month, that was our focus. We were looking at a walk with Jesus. If you don't have a walk with Jesus, if you are not born again, if you have not given your life to Christ, what we are talking about will just be looking to you like signs and wonders. You need to give your life to Jesus. If you feel that you want more counseling or whatever from us, immediately after the message, you will get the announcement corner giving you our phone numbers and everything. You can call us. You can call us for further counseling and whatever on how to walk with Jesus, how to give your life to Jesus. If you've been listening to me, please talk to the Lord this morning. Talk to the Lord. Youthful but insightful. In Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. [Speaker 1] In Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. Our righteous Father, Lord, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word that has come forth to give us understanding and light. Be exalted in the name of Jesus. Lord, you will help us. Lord, we are young. You will help us to be insightful in the name of Jesus. Lord, every youthful passion, every youthful desires that might want to necessitate the fact of going in a wrong way. You said how can a young man keep his way pure, but by taking heed to your word. Lord, the passion for your word, to stay pure, you will help us in the name of Jesus. Lord, we'll be men and women of this generation that you will look down on and you will be able to say, "Yes, these are my beloved sons and daughter in whom I am well pleased" in the name of Jesus. Lord, if with then anybody that has been walking in the way that has not been of God, that has not laid a correct foundation in a relationship with God, that maybe guilt of any form is pricking their hearts, Lord, you help them to see your light in the name of Jesus and understand the death and the salvation of your son for in Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. Let's share the grace in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forever more. Amen. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [Outro Voice-over] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class, every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Family Life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy filling station along Idanre road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you.