Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Adolescents in Adult Bodies │ Msg 916 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Adolescents in Adult Bodies │ Msg 916 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: An alleged victim of bullying and a young man, having
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  Speaker 1: never recovered from the pain of his parents' divorce and
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  Speaker 1: the isolation he experienced as an awkward adolescent.
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  Speaker 2: Timothy McVeigh seemed vengefully bent on doing the world harm.
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  Speaker 2: I'll never forget watching the live news footage of young McVeigh.
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  Speaker 2: He was being led from his death row holding cell
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  Speaker 2: at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, to the
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  Speaker 2: place where he would be executed for the April nineteen,
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  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five truck bombing of the Alfred P. Merle
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  Speaker 2: Federal Building in Oklahoma City. His eyes darted in a curious,
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  Speaker 2: flashing fear mixed with an eerie, youthful defiance. After the
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  Speaker 2: ordeal was over and the execute uhian had taken place,
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  Speaker 2: the public learned of his final words. They included an
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  Speaker 2: obscure poem titled Invictus, written by William Ernest Henley long
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  Speaker 2: before mcveigh's birth. Henley's poem conveys a disturbing hardness within
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  Speaker 2: this troubled young man's soul. As I read these now
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  Speaker 2: infamous words, listen closely out of the night that covers
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  Speaker 2: me black as the pit from pole to pole, I
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  Speaker 2: thank whatever God's may be, for my unconquerable soul. In
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  Speaker 2: the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor
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  Speaker 2: cried aloud under the bludgeonings of chance. My head is bloody,
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  Speaker 2: but unbowed beyond this place of wrath and tears loomed,
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  Speaker 2: but the horror of the shade. And yet the menace.
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  Speaker 1: Of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It
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  Speaker 1: matters not how straight the gate are charged with punishments
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  Speaker 1: the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I
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  Speaker 1: am the captain of my soul. Left to ourselves, my friend,
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  Speaker 1: that is our fate, living life as if captains.
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  Speaker 3: Of our own souls.
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  Speaker 2: In today's message, I'd like to share with you some
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  Speaker 2: important principles related to growing up in God's family, Principles
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  Speaker 2: that demonstrate for all of us the importance of facing
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  Speaker 2: the truth about ourselves and about our relationship to the
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  Speaker 2: living God who made us. To stay proud, arrogant, selfish,
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  Speaker 2: and petty while stubbornly believing we can direct our own
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  Speaker 2: spiritual destinies is to remain stuck in spiritual adolescens and
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  Speaker 2: though as spiritually immature adults. We may never inflict such
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  Speaker 2: harm on innocent people as McVeigh did. We can do
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  Speaker 2: untold spiritual damage to those closest to us, and we
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  Speaker 2: can malign the name of Christ as we do.
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  Speaker 3: So.
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  Speaker 1: I begin today by reading an excerpt from Acts, chapter twelve.
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  Speaker 1: This will help set the stage for a wider view
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  Speaker 1: of this panorama of scripture. The First Acts, Chapter twelve,
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  Speaker 1: Verses twenty four and twenty five. The scene is first
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  Speaker 1: century Jerusalem. Rome's Herod has just choked on his own
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  Speaker 1: pride and drop dead under the swift and comprehensive judgment
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  Speaker 1: of God. A holy hush has filled the city.
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  Speaker 2: With that in mind.
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  Speaker 1: Listen as I read Acts Chapter twelve, twenty four and
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  Speaker 1: twenty five. Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread,
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  Speaker 1: and there were many new believers. When Barnabas and Saul
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  Speaker 1: had finished their mission to Jerusalem, they returned, taking John
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  Speaker 1: Mark with them. The peter Pan syndrome is becoming increasingly
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  Speaker 1: more familiar to all of us, and the familiarity is
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  Speaker 1: breeding contempt, especially if you find yourself married to someone
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  Speaker 1: who was caught in that particular syndrome. Perhaps you are
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  Speaker 1: not familiar with the words the Peter Pan Syndrome, And
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  Speaker 1: for your sake, I would like to read a few
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  Speaker 1: excerpts from the man who originated the idea.
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  Speaker 3: From a book by that.
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  Speaker 1: Name, The Peter Pan Syndrome, with the subtitle men who
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  Speaker 1: Have Never grown Up. He writes, we all remember the
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  Speaker 1: compelling story of happy, go lucky Peter Pan, right, the soft,
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  Speaker 1: effeminate boy who wouldn't grow up. It was Peter who
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  Speaker 1: showed us the glory of eternal youth. Peter Pan symbolizes
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  Speaker 1: the essence of youthfulness, the joy he awakens the child
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  Speaker 1: inside all of us. We are drawn to him. He
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  Speaker 1: is wonderful.
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  Speaker 3: He offers us.
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  Speaker 1: The hand of an everlasting playmate. But how many people
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  Speaker 1: realize that there is another side to the classic character
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  Speaker 1: created by J. M.
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  Speaker 3: Barry?
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  Speaker 1: Have you stopped to consider why Peter wanted to stay young? Sure,
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  Speaker 1: it's tough to grow up, but Peter Pan avoided it vehemently?
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  Speaker 1: What made him reject all things adult?
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  Speaker 3: What was he really after.
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  Speaker 1: Was not Peter's desire to stay young, actually a militant
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  Speaker 1: refusal to grow up. A careful and thoughtful reading of
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  Speaker 1: Barry's original play says, this writer opened my eyes to
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  Speaker 1: a chilling reality. As much as I wanted to believe
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, Peter Pan was a very sad young man.
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  Speaker 1: His life was filled with contradictions, conflicts, and confusion. For
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  Speaker 1: all his gaiety, he was a deeply troubled boy living
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  Speaker 1: in an even more troubling time. He was caught in
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  Speaker 1: the abyss between the man he didn't want to become
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  Speaker 1: and the boy he could no longer be. Unknown to
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  Speaker 1: many parents and others who love them, many of our
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  Speaker 1: children are unwittingly following in the footsteps of Peter Pan
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  Speaker 1: with increasing frequency. The little known side of the famous
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  Speaker 1: Pan has captured the heart and soul of a significant
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  Speaker 1: segment of our children.
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  Speaker 3: Allow me a little bit more in this quote.
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  Speaker 1: Like Peter's contemporaries, our male children are suffering the most
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  Speaker 1: all across our land. Young men are refusing to grow up. Thousands,
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  Speaker 1: maybe even hundreds of thousands, are moving toward a manhood
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  Speaker 1: that frightens them. In a state of fear, they rush
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  Speaker 1: to join the ranks of the legion of the lost boys.
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  Speaker 1: Many so called successful adult men still behave like children.
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  Speaker 1: Most of us have flirted with this attitude at one
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  Speaker 1: time or another. It's perfectly normal to sprinkle a little
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  Speaker 1: magical dust on your head, especially during your younger days.
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  Speaker 1: There's certainly nothing wrong with having the desire to join
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  Speaker 1: Peter and his frivolous fellows. Nothing that is provided your
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  Speaker 1: return from never never Land when it's time to deal
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  Speaker 1: with the real world. I remember my own encounter with
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  Speaker 1: Peter and his magical dust. I wasn't invisible to adults
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  Speaker 1: as Peter was, but I did try to fly away
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  Speaker 1: once by jumping off the chicken shed like my feathery friends.
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  Speaker 1: Nature gave me a down to earth and painful lesson
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  Speaker 1: in reality. I also told my grandma that I wasn't
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  Speaker 1: going to grow up. She was kind and compassionate as
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  Speaker 1: she said, that's nice, Danny. Now get out in the
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  Speaker 1: garden and hoe the tomatoes. Reality neutralizes the powers of
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  Speaker 1: the magical dust. But if children enter their adolescence in
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  Speaker 1: full pursuit of eternal youth, monumental problems develop as reality
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  Speaker 1: becomes clouded, and if they reach the beginning of their
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  Speaker 1: third decade with the same outlook, a serious identity crisis
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  Speaker 1: will consume them. Sometime during their early twenties. Some recover,
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  Speaker 1: an increasing number do not. Your son might be a victim,
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  Speaker 1: so might your husband. I am finishing the book The
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  Speaker 1: Peter Pan Syndrome, and I am learning a lot.
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  Speaker 3: I don't agree with everything I read.
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  Speaker 1: As is true of every book I read, but much
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  Speaker 1: of what doctor Kylie writes is insightful. As a matter
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  Speaker 1: of fact, it is amazing how it ties in with
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  Speaker 1: our series.
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  Speaker 3: On growing up becoming adult.
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  Speaker 1: Believers in the Church of Jesus Christ. As I am
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  Speaker 1: reading through it, I find myself on occasion smiling, on
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  Speaker 1: more occasions frowning, and on all occasions thinking. It helps
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  Speaker 1: explain to me how, at least in psychological terms, deeply
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  Speaker 1: troubled boys to borrow from his words are caught in
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  Speaker 1: the abyss between the man they don't want to become
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  Speaker 1: and the boy they can no longer be. You know
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  Speaker 1: anyone like that, If you are closely related to someone
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  Speaker 1: like that, you're probably not smiling. It's very, very difficult
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  Speaker 1: to share your home with an adolescent in adult skin,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it. It's even more difficult to be married to
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  Speaker 1: one like that. I wish I could say that Christians
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  Speaker 1: are immune from this syndrome. On the contrary, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: in this particular message, we're going to uncover from the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament.
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  Speaker 3: Three. In this syndrome, one seemed to pull out of it.
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  Speaker 1: Two seem not to sort of studies and tragedy. But first,
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  Speaker 1: let me share with you, as I think about the
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  Speaker 1: adolescent years, some of the undeniable characteristics of adolescence. I
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  Speaker 1: say it from experience as well as from the lives
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be looking at in this particular study.
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  Speaker 1: Three in mind, here's the first instability. When the going
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  Speaker 1: gets rough. It is a mark of adolescence. When the
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  Speaker 1: going gets rough, there is instability, There is restlessness, there
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  Speaker 1: is a great desire to quit, and often there is
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  Speaker 1: the carrying out of that desire just quitting instability when
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  Speaker 1: the going gets rough. Nietzsche wrote about a long obedience
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  Speaker 1: in the same direction. These particular adolescents have short bursts
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  Speaker 1: in different direction. They know little of staying on course,
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  Speaker 1: especially when the course is painful and hard.
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  Speaker 3: To deal with.
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  Speaker 1: They don't make good leaders, and they certainly don't make
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  Speaker 1: good fathers. But alas you can't change your father, and
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  Speaker 1: you often can rearrange the makeup of your leader, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: you simply must learn to live with someone like this,
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  Speaker 1: and that's very, very difficult. Second is irresponsibility when the
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  Speaker 1: world gets appealing. Adolescence can usually handle a few of
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  Speaker 1: the battles with the world system, but when there is
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  Speaker 1: an intensity of appeal from the world, it is a
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  Speaker 1: characteristic of adolescence to be irresponsible. Irresponsibility when the world
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  Speaker 1: gets appealing. The third is familiar to all of us
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  Speaker 1: who have reared adolescence. Insensitivity when the will is challenged.
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  Speaker 1: Who hasn't wrestled with an adolescent who didn't get his way?
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  Speaker 1: Teachers could tell us all kinds of stories about trying
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  Speaker 1: to teach adolescens who want to do one thing when
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  Speaker 1: the game plan is to do something else. Insensitivity when
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  Speaker 1: the will is challenged. By that, I mean an inability
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  Speaker 1: to negotiate, an unwillingness to listen to the other side.
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  Speaker 1: That's an adolescent characteristic, in fact, an unwillingness to listen altogether.
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  Speaker 1: My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with the facts.
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  Speaker 1: It's the whole idea of I know what I want,
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  Speaker 1: and I know when I want it, and I know
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  Speaker 1: how I can get it. Don't get in my way.
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  Speaker 1: There is an insensitivity when the will is challenged. All
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  Speaker 1: three of these cases are set forth in scripture. We'll
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  Speaker 1: take them in that order. First a case of instability,
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  Speaker 1: second a case of irresponsibility, and finally a case of insensitivity.
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  Speaker 1: Turn to Acts chapter twelve, if you will. The first
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  Speaker 1: case study is a man named John Mark. You may
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  Speaker 1: be surprised to know he's the same one who wrote
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel, but that.
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  Speaker 3: Was much later on.
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  Speaker 1: At the time we look at John Mark, he's an
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  Speaker 1: adolescent in an adult body. John Mark is mentioned first
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  Speaker 1: in scripture in Acts chapter twelve.
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  Speaker 3: He's known as.
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  Speaker 1: The son of the woman in whose home there was
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  Speaker 1: a great prayer meeting. According to verse twelve of Acts twelve.
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  Speaker 1: That's not Germane to my subject, So we'll drop down
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  Speaker 1: to the last two verses of this chapter.
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  Speaker 3: Acts twelve, twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Four, and twenty five would be our first stopping off place.
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  Speaker 1: Idealism is abounding in John Mark's mind. The word of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied, and
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  Speaker 1: Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled
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  Speaker 1: their mission, taking along with them John, who was also
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  Speaker 1: called Mark. I wish we had more in this biography
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  Speaker 1: of his age. I wish we had more of his temperament.
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  Speaker 1: I certainly wish we knew some of his battles and
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  Speaker 1: struggles in life. It would probably help us feel more compassion.
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  Speaker 1: Certainly would give us a broader understanding of.
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  Speaker 3: The young man.
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  Speaker 1: Probably he is in his early twenties. He is an
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  Speaker 1: adult physically speaking, but as we're going to see really soon,
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  Speaker 1: he is actually an adolescent. He's in the Peter Pan syndrome.
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  Speaker 1: He has great hopes of traveling with these great men.
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  Speaker 1: As is often true in missionary work, the first few
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  Speaker 1: thoughts are idealistic. I will have a chance to minister
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  Speaker 1: to a world in need. I will have an opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to rub shoulders with great.
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  Speaker 3: Men and women. In the process. I'll be able to travel.
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  Speaker 1: I'll be able to see these sites that I would
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  Speaker 1: never otherwise see, and.
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  Speaker 3: I'll be able to touch.
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  Speaker 1: Lives that I would never otherwise be able to touch.
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  Speaker 1: And in the case of John Mark, he's going to
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  Speaker 1: be able to travel with Barnabas and Saul, who was
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  Speaker 1: later named Paul the Great Apostle.
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  Speaker 3: Look at the next.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter and feel the idealism grow. There were at Antioch
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  Speaker 1: in the church that was their prophets and teachers. They
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  Speaker 1: are named for us Verse two. While they were ministering
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  Speaker 1: to the Lord and fasting. The Holy Spirit said, set
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  Speaker 1: apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to
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  Speaker 1: which I have called them. Then, when they had fasted
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  Speaker 1: and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent
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  Speaker 1: them away, being sent out by the Holy Spirit. They
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  Speaker 1: went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, let me jump ahead and mention
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  Speaker 1: at the end of verse five they also had John
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  Speaker 1: as their helper. Here's our friend John Mark. So there
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  Speaker 1: are three of them that are traveling on this ship,
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  Speaker 1: leaving and finally arriving. Leaving from the mainland, they finally
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  Speaker 1: arrived on the island of Cyprus. It must have been fabulous.
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  Speaker 1: According to verse five, they reached the port of Salamis.
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  Speaker 1: If my study is correct, Salomus was a beautiful port.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, what they've been able to unearth through the
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  Speaker 1: archaeologist's spade, they have found that it was probably a
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  Speaker 1: city of about one hundred thousand or more people.
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  Speaker 3: It was a beautiful spot.
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  Speaker 1: The island of Cyprus has been nicknamed Macaiah, the Happy Isle.
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  Speaker 1: I can hear the sound coming across the harbor a
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  Speaker 1: low Ha or whatever they said. When travelers arrived, it
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  Speaker 1: was a place of freedom, a place of looseness, a
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  Speaker 1: place of pleasure and delight. And I imagine the sunsets
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  Speaker 1: on Cyprus were something to behold.
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  Speaker 3: And John's heart must.
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  Speaker 1: Have beat quickly as he with his respected companions thought
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  Speaker 1: of ministering to the people on Cyprus. They didn't stop
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  Speaker 1: and stay at Salamus.
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  Speaker 3: It was only.
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  Speaker 1: A passage to get them onto Paythos, which is mentioned
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  Speaker 1: in the next verse. They had gone through the whole island.
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  Speaker 1: As far as Paythos, they found a certain magician, a
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  Speaker 1: Jewish false prophet whose name was bar Jesus, son of Jesus. Interesting,
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  Speaker 1: and this is John's first encounter with a confrontation, at
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  Speaker 1: least first in scripture. And if you remember the story
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  Speaker 1: as Paul and Sergius, Paulus, this proconsul, and this elimas
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  Speaker 1: the magician, you remember it was an emotional encounter. It
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  Speaker 1: was tough to witness. John must have stood there with
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  Speaker 1: his mouth open as there was a verbal fight between
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  Speaker 1: Saul of Tarsus and the magician.
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  Speaker 3: Verse nine.
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  Speaker 1: Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on this magician, and he said,
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  Speaker 1: you are full of all deceit and fraud, you son
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  Speaker 1: of the devil, you enemy of righteousness. Will you not
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  Speaker 1: cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord.
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  Speaker 3: That must have been something to behold.
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  Speaker 1: If you have ever been in a confrontational setting, you
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  Speaker 1: don't need it explained.
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  Speaker 3: It's a threatening feeling.
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  Speaker 1: It's disillusioning if you tend to be an idealist to
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  Speaker 1: see two strong willed people verbally fight one another, and
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  Speaker 1: Paul stands nose to nose with this emissary of Satan,
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  Speaker 1: and John Mark must have stood back and gritted his teeth,
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  Speaker 1: wondering what he had gotten into. The idealism begins to
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  Speaker 1: shatter as Mark witnesses something other than a smooth flow
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  Speaker 1: of events. The island must have been beautiful, but the
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  Speaker 1: encounter was painful to witness. John saw it all the
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  Speaker 1: proconsul believed verse twelve when he saw what had happened,
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  Speaker 1: being amazed at the teaching of the Lord, and perhaps
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  Speaker 1: that put things back into perspective. But then the next verse,
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  Speaker 1: suddenly everything changes for John Mark. Now Paul and his
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  Speaker 1: companions put out to sea from Paphoss, and they came
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  Speaker 1: to perga in Panphilia. John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 1: It's a half sentence, but it reveals an adolescent response.
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  Speaker 1: Christistom writes that he was home sick for his mother,
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  Speaker 1: so he went back to her. I don't know where
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  Speaker 1: Chris system finds that. That's an interesting insight. He certainly
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have biblical support for it. For whatever the reason,
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  Speaker 1: John Mark said, that's enough. If you give me a
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  Speaker 1: couple of more minutes, I think I can build a
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  Speaker 1: case for why he bailed out. The Pamphidion coastline is
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  Speaker 1: one of the most rugged in southern Turkey.
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  Speaker 3: It is awesome to behold.
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  Speaker 1: One writer says, imposing cliffs stood like huge fists of
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  Speaker 1: dark soil and foliage before me. If Galatians four and
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  Speaker 1: verse thirteen refers to this moment in Saul's life, Paul
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  Speaker 1: the apostle, this is where he contracted malaria. This is
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  Speaker 1: where his eye trouble, his headaches began. This is where
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  Speaker 1: he fell ill. And the ill illness mixed with the
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  Speaker 1: imposing mountainous range in front of him, and the encounter
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  Speaker 1: with Satanic opposition and perhaps a little homesickness on John's
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  Speaker 1: part was enough to send him back home with his
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  Speaker 1: tail between his legs. He was now what we would
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  Speaker 1: call today a missionary dropout. He decided it isn't worth
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  Speaker 1: it to go on. I don't want to be too
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  Speaker 1: hard on John Mark, but I do want to point
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  Speaker 1: out that he quit when the going got rough. Paul's
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  Speaker 1: headaches were horrible. One historian says the headache characteristic of
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  Speaker 1: malaria was like a red hot bar thrust through the forehead,
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  Speaker 1: like a dentist drill boring through a man's temple. It
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  Speaker 1: became so difficult for Saul in his later years. Paul
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  Speaker 1: the Apostle that he was not able to write the
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  Speaker 1: Galatian Letter except in large, sprawling characters. It's believed that
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  Speaker 1: he suffered from some form of ophthalmalia, and it all
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  Speaker 1: had its roots in the Pamphilion coastline. And he didn't
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  Speaker 1: even have Luke to treat him. So here they were
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  Speaker 1: without medical assistance. Paul is laying aside in illness. Barnabas
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't have much to say. There's nothing but mountains to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: climb in front of them. The memory of an encounter
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: with the demonic individual in recent days, John Mark says
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that's enough. In case you wonder what Paul thought of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: this departure. Turned to chapter fifteen and look at verse
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: thirty six the same book, just sort of an anecdote
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: connected to this story, and then we'll go on to
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the next man. They finished with the first journey. John
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Mark has come home and they've gone on without him.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Paul and Barnabas. Now they're planning on another journey. Barnabas
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: wants to take his and John in fact one of
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: actually a relative verse thirty six. After some days, Paul
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: said to Barnabas, let's return and visit the brethren in
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: every city in which we proclaim the word of the Lord, and.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: See how they are.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Barnabas was desiring of taking John called Mark along with them. Also,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: who had deserted them in Pamphilia. Remember that word, we'll
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: come across it with another man in a moment. He
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: them to the work. Paul said, no, we're not taking
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: John Mark. He bails out when the going gets rough.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: And there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: from one another Barnabas took Mark and.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: They sailed away to Cyprus.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Paul chose Silas and departed, being committed by the brethren
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to the grace of the Lord. We'll look at John
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Mark as Paul writes his last letter in.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: A few moments.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: But I want you to remember the first characteristic of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: an adolescent in an adult body. And that's that whole
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: problem of quitting when the going gets rough. We're not
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: just doing a Bible study so we can study characters
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: that live in ancient days. We're looking at ourselves in
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the mirror of scripture, aren't we. How do you do
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: when the going gets rough?
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: How are you.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Doing now that it seems the bottom has dropped out?
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Your idealism about life is shattered, Perhaps the life I
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: refer to as marriage, or the rearing of your children,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: or the living of your days without a mate, or
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: your job, whatever may be your lot. Because you are
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: in a world system that is marked by failure and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: sin and disappointment. You're come across rough times. Chances are
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: good you've thought about quitting. A characteristic of adulthood in
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the Christian life is staying with the stuff when the
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: going gets rough, And I commend you for doing that.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I commend you for staying with it, even though you
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: haven't many models around you, it seems, who are doing that.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Turn from Acts to Colossians chapter four, and let's look
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: at a man who was irresponsible when the world became appealing.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: His name is Demus. He's mentioned three times in the scriptures.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: The first two times, well, it's rather commendable. Colossians four,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: verse fourteen simply mentions him alongside the beloved physician Luke.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: So we won't spend much time in Colossians four. Just
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: have you noticed the mentioning of his name four fourteen Luke,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the beloved physician ends you his greetings, and also Demus.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: It's the first time in the New Testament that Demus
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: is mentioned. He's mentioned among the brethren who bring greetings from.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: The apostle Paul.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Colossians mentions him Philemon the little small letter in the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: New Testament, the one chapter letter. Let's turn there. You'll
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: see him mentioned in verses twenty three and twenty four.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Toward the end of that little letter Epiphras. My, Oh,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: it's hard to find it, isn't it. Just before Hebrews
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: verses twenty three and twenty four. If it has more
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: than one chapter, you're not there yet. You've got to
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: find the one chapter book. Philemon Epiphras, my fellow prisoner
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: in Christ, Jesus greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demus, Luke,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord ges this
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Christ be with your spirit. He's mentioned not only as
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: a companion, but a fellow worker. So Demus is a
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: close companion with Paul and with Luke, and mentioned here
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Aristarchus and Mark men we know nothing about. And he's
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: listed in a letter where Paul brings greetings from them.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: So he's one of the workmen, one of the ministers,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: one of the itinerant evangelists that were involved in first
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: century ministry. And then the most famous of all references
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: is in this last letter Paul wrote, two Timothy chapter four.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Even though you go ahead.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: In time, you go back in your bibles the Second
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Timothy four. And let's take verses nine through eleven of
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: this last letter. Paul ever wrote, you can hear the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: clang of the chain and the dungeon Mamartine. Misery is
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: all around Paul. He is pleading with Timothy to come soon.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: He's lonely. Make every effort. We're in chapter four, verse nine,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Make every effort to come to me soon. For Demus,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: having loved this present world, has deserted me. I ask
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: you to remember that word from an earlier reference. Here
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: it is again, Demus has deserted me and gone to Thesalonaika.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Crescence has gone to Galatia, tightest to Dalmatia. Only Luke
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: is with me.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Pick up Mark.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: This is the John Mark that Paul didn't want to
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: be with earlier. He's come a long ways, hasn't it,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: And so has Mark. Pick up Mark and bring him
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: with you, for he is useful to me, for service.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I think that's very gracious of Paul to add that
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I see a value in John Mark that I didn't
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: see earlier.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Bring him with you.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: When you're in a dungeon, you're not too picky regarding companions.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Bring them all. Bring the clone, bring the parchments, bring
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: the books. Come before winter, Timothy, calm before winter. It's
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: cold in this dungeon. Now back to Demus. Just a
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: word about Demus here. He has loved the present world,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: and so he has deserted.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: Paul. The word dessert is the.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Greek term for abandon to leave in the lurch, to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: let someone down. We're told why he was caught in
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the peter Pan syndrome. That's why in this passage it
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: says he has fallen in love with the present world.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I'man trigged by that. It's upon those thoughts that I
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: think on occasion for a long time. I think about
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: that thought when I drive, I think about that thought.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: When I lay down to go to sleep at night.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: I think about it when I get a.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Call from a wife whose husband, for some unexplainable reason,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: has kicked the traces and taken off in a lifestyle
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: that's altogether irresponsible. I think about a demus in today's life.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Have done a little study on this word world. It's
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: the term I own. I own is the Greek word.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: It refers to.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: According to Trench, that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and impulses at any time current in our world which
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: constitutes a most real and effective power being the moral
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: or immoral atmosphere, which, at every moment of our lives
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: we inhale and again inevitably exhale the subtle, informing spirit
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: of the world of men who are living alienated and
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: apart from God. At every moment of our lives, we
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: are breathing in and exhaling our world system. We don't
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: even realize how much I ran on Friday evening, and
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't have. There was so much smog. I knew better,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: but I decided I needed to do that, and I
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: took off and I ran four miles in the smug
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and when I got back, I had a real bad
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: pain that's notorious for our area if you work out
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: in the smog, or if you breathe it in and
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: out too much, you know what I'm referring to. And
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: all through that night I had the pain that was
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: a part of my lungs filling up with that pollution
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: that's around us. And I thought, it's amazing. You know
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: it's there, you read that it's there, and sometimes you
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: even see in taste.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: That it's there.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: In fact, i've lived in it that I've gotten to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: where I don't trust air. I can't see when I
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: travel outside to southern California. I have to get near
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: exhausts at times just to feel at home and come.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: Back to reality.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: But I thought, what a perfect example of the world system.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: It's there.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: You don't realize it's there, but you are inexorably breathing
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: it in and out, in and out, in and out,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: and it becomes a part of your thinking, so that
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: little by little, like erosion, a section of your life
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: can drop off. You're not even aware that it's dropped,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: because it's so silent and it's so subtle. But now
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: you no longer are standing firm in that area. You know,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: I get soft in that area, and you get soft
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: in the next area, very eloquently lockier rites of Demus
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: before he met Paul, we can picture DMUs as an
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: agreeable young man with no particular vice. The material of
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: his character has no rent in it. He was only
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: shoddy throughout. Under the strong influence of Paul's personality, Demus
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: was like a piece of soft iron, temporarily magnetized by
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: the presence of a magnet. Becoming a disciple, he was
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: carried away by the enthusiasm of sacrifice. He wanted to
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: live with Paul and die with him, and have a
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: throne and a halo among the martyred saints. But when
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Demus came up to the great capital of the then
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: known world. In company with the lord's prisoners Paul and Epiphrats,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: it was a different story. He was not a prisoner,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: and gradually the contrast between the and the outer world
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: became intolerable to him.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: He saw the magnificent.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Halls of the Caesars, the gorgeous homes of the rich,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: and the glitter of the world of music. Venal loves,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: jest and wine. Such a world cast its glamour over DMUs,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and he yielded to its charms. The prison where his
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: friends were languishing seemed wretched alongside the music haunted, scented, dazzling.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: Halls of Rome.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Thus Paul had to write one of his most heartbreaking lines,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Demus has forsaken me, having loved this present world. There
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: is a pulsating beat that's very pleasurable in our world.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: And if you are an adolescent within, you want that beat.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: You want it's massaging melody. You want what it can
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: give you, and it's for a period of time exceedingly pleasant.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: It really appeals to the flesh. It feels good, You
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: long to drink of it.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Your curiosity pulls you into it, and before you know it,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: you've deserted the things of God. I don't want to
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: hurry on before asking you, does that describe what's happening
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: in your life? I never know where these messages wind up.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: I never know whose lives they touch. I just this
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: past week was with a young man who said I
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: had walked away from Christ. I was at that moment
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: living apart from him. I pulled in it a little
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Hamburger joint, and he named the town where he lived,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: and he said, I was working in another field entirely.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: And I switched on the radio and I listened to
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: him your words, and he said, you just you just
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: told me my life, one step after another. And I thought,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: sure you'd been looking in my windows, you had been
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: reading my mail. He said, it was just right from
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the scriptures, and you described my life. Does demus describe
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: your life? Maybe not completely. You may not have left yet,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: but you're playing with it. F. B.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Meyer is right.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: No man suddenly becomes base. No one just suddenly drops off.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: It's a slow process. Demus walking away from the prison
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: after visiting Paul might have looked across the streets of
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Rome and just for a moment entertained a very innocent thought,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: how wonderful that looks out there, how much better that
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: looks than this is. And look at all the fun
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: they're having, and listen to all the excitement of what
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: they've got. And that's that prison is what I have
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: in front of me. And enough visits and enough thoughts
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: and enough toleration of thoughts like that, and you're a goner.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: If you are teetering with those thoughts.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Remember Demus, there was a time in his life when
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: it was no longer just a theoretical thing. It became
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: an action someone wrote years ago. So a thought reap
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: an act, So an act.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Reap a habit. So a habit reap your destiny.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: It begins with the thought, and it turns into a
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: whole change of character destiny. The third visit we will
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: have is with a man named in third John, again
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: one of these little one chapter books. This is a
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: man who wanted his way. The first man we looked
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: at is has been John Mark, who walked away, The
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: next was Demus, who loved the world, And third is Diotrophies,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: who wanted his way. We don't need to spend a
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: lot of time here, because the Lord himself doesn't. When
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: he writes of him, I wrote verse nine, I wrote
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: something to the church. We're in the Book of third John.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Verse nine. John says, I wrote something to the church.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: But Diotrophies, who loves to be first among them, does
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: not accept what we say. Before we read the next statement,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: please observe that. John, the apostle writing this church, mentions
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Diotrophies almost in passing, and he characterizes him as a
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: man who wants to be in first place. He wants
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: to be in charge. He wants to have his way.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: He wants his opinions recognized and followed. He wants an
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: influential role where he can make things happen.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: He doesn't want it to be done in the.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Power of the spirit necessarily. He just wants his way.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: That's a mark of adolescence. I don't want it to
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: be done necessarily in a wise manner. I just want
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: what I want. I know what's best, and I'm going.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: To get it. That's a Diotrophy's mentality. He wants first place.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: So the apostle says, he doesn't accept what we say
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: for this reason. If I come, I will confront him.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: I will call attention to his deeds, which he does unjustly,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: accusing us with wicked words and not satisfied with this,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: neither does he himself receive the brethren. He, in fact,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: forbids those who desire to do so and puts them
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: out of the church. This is what is commonly called
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a church boss. He isn't the appointed leader. He is
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: the self appointed leader. He isn't the anointed leader. He's
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the self anointed leader. He wants his way, and he's
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: going to get it at all costs. In some manner,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: he became involved in the leadership.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: And by and by he became like.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: A savage diotrophies lives on, his spirit lives on. I
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: was spending part of my past week with a group
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: of pastors at a conference. I wasn't there very long,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: but I was there for about twenty four to thirty hours,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: and during my brief stay, I had a number of
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: encounters with men in ministry, and though I don't know
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: most of them personally, we had a chance to talk
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: in depth about their work. And I can't tell you
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: what percentage, but it had to be a high percentage.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: Of My conversation's really to dealing.
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: With difficult people in the church.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: What do I do, Chuck when I am faced with
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: this particular individual. Then they describe to me the scene.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: I'd finish with that situation, and then I'd have coffee
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: with another couple or three of the fellows, and I,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: even though the geography changes and the people's names change,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: the same idea came again.
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: I didn't ask for it. In fact, it's tough to
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: minister in a context like that.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: You deal with two or three hundred depressed pastors, and
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: then you come away from there thinking did I minister
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: to those people?
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Or what?
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: What concerned me is the growing number of difficulties men
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: are encountering in leading churches. It need not be that way,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: and all church people aren't like that. In fact, the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: vast majority are not that way at all. But it
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: doesn't take many. Takes just a few, and before long
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: you feel like maybe God's leading me somewhere else. The
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: only problem is there's a diotrophies waiting there that's just
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: anxious to have you come.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: Now. I don't mean by.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: This and every disagreeable person is a diotrophy. That's not
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: my point, and I am not saying that. But I
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: am saying it's easy if you are frequently negative, or
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: if you are frequently with a bad attitude regarding the
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: ministry of a church. It's easy to fall into a
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Diotrophy's syndrome. It's part of adolescence, just not wanting to
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: grow up. I finished a book recently called Well Intentioned Dragons.
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: Interesting book.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: It's written by Marshall Shelley. Well Intentioned Dragons is a
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: book about difficulties people have in churches. He writes, dragons,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: of course, are fictional beasts, monstrous reptiles with lions claws, serpents,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: tailed bat wings, and scaly skin. They exist only in
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the imagination, but there are dragons of a different sort,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: decidedly real in most cases, though not always. They do
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: not intend to be sinister. In fact, they're usually quite friendly,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: but their charm belies their power to destroy. Within the church,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: there are often sincere, well meaning saints, but they leave ulcers,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: strained relationships, and hard feelings in their wake. They don't
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: consider themselves difficult people. They don't sit up mites thinking
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: of ways to be nasty. Often they are pillars of
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: the community, talented, strong personalities, deservingly respected, but for some
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: reason they undermine the ministry of a church. They are
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: not naturally rebellious or pathological. They are loyal church members
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: convince their serving God, but they wind up doing more
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: harm than good. They can drive pastors crazy or out
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: of the church. Some dragons are openly critical. They are
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: the ones who accuse you of being pick one, too spiritual,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: not spiritual enough, too dominant, too laid back, too narrow,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: too loose, too structured, too disorganized, or ulterior in your motives.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: These criticisms are painful because they are largely unanswerable. How
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: can you defend yourself and maintain a spirit of peace?
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: How can you possibly prove the purity of your motives?
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Dragons make it hard to disagree without being disagreeable. Are
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: you a diotrophees? Are you a diotrophies in the making.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: It may be difficult for you to answer that question.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: You may not even be aware if of it, if
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: it's true, because I think often we're well intentioned in
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: our in our feelings. I am sure Diotrophies never set
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: out in his mind to destroy a church, But somehow,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: in the process of time, Diotrophies took charge, so much
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: so that when someone as gracious as the apostle, John wrote.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: He wouldn't even receive the letter. Another another.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Example of an adolescent in adult body. Now, how do
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: we guard against permanent adolescents? That's that's a that's a
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: real practical question, and I don't think there's a reason
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time on that. Let me
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: suggest three things, and I want to go down the
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: list of those three particular characteristics I mentioned at the
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: beginning of my talk. First practical piece of advice I
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: would give is this, when wrestling with restlessness, real the
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: benefits of faithfulness. When wrestling with restlessness, as John Mark did,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: realize the benefits.
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Of faithfulness.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: People who make an impact on other people are not
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: fly by nighters. They are people who stick through the
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: tough times.
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: The people in.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Your life who have been most helpful in your growth
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: have been people who have stayed at the task when
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: the going got rough. When the going gets rough, instead
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: of thinking where can I find greener pastures, think what
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: are the benefits of faithfulness?
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: Here?
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: And while you're at it, read a good book called
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: A long obedience in the same direction. Excellent book that
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: is worth the time. A long obedience in the same direction.
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Second, when allured by ear responsibility, think of the consequences
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: of carnality.
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: Now I'm thinking of Demus.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: When allured by irresponsibility, think of the consequences of carnality.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: That has helped me a lot when I have been
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: tempted by the world.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: I have found that if I can.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Visualize in my mind the incredible wake the consequences that
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: will follow a sensual act, I am halted.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: I am stopped in my.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Tracks from yielding picture the consequences of carnality when you're tempted,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: when you're allured by irresponsibility. I was talking with a
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Christian statesman several weeks ago, and he said, while on
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: the mission field, he had to deal with a man
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: who had decided to leave his mate and his children
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: and to run away and have a fun and frolic
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: time with a young lady he had met there from
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: that particular region. And he said, I stopped him before
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: he took off, and I said, wait a minute, let's
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: talk for a few moments about the lives that are
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: going to be impacted by your decision. And he said,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: before we got through, literally we named several hundred lives
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: that will be impacted as a consequence of your act.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: That does something if you're still sane enough to reason
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: with That does something to stop us in our downward spiral.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: Think of the consequences of your carnality before the act.
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: If you don't, you'll think it'll be easier than it
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: will be.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Third, and finally, when tempted to manipulate and dominate, remember
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: the lordship of Christ. The next time you are tempted
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: to manipulate someone or dominate the situation, remember the Lordship
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: of Christ. I have great news. Adolescence is not terminal.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Isn't that a great piece of news. Adolescence is a
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: passage through which we must travel. You can't get to
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: adulthood without going through it. But the goal is to
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: go through it, not to stop in it. To fight
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the syndrome called the peter Pan syndrome. I'll say more
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: about that next time. We're not through dealing with this one.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: I'd like us to bow together for just a moment
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: of personal evaluation. I want you to allow your life
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: to pass in review in front of people who mean
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: a lot to you, your family people, the members of
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: your family, the people who look up to you and
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: see you as representative of what they really believe in.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: I want you to think about them, and to see
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: their faces there on the back of your eyelids as you,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: for a moment consider your life horizontally. That's the reason
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: your life is important. You have people who look to you,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: who believe in you, who count on you not to
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: give up when the going gets rough, not to be
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: allured by the world system, not to manipulate them or
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: dominate the scene. They need heroes, they need models, and
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: Christ has left you to be that for them. For
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: some of you, has small children lean on you and
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: need you to be strong. For some of you, it's
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: a mate going through a very painful time not even
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: your mate can explain. For others, it's people where you work.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Whatever may God help you to.
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: Be strong, stable, responsible.
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: Gracious Father, we simply do not want to leave a
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: time such as this, a place where you have so
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: clearly and pointedly spoken into our experience without acknowledging our
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: absolute total need for you in our lives to settle
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: once and for all this long fought battle for ownership
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: of everything we once claimed as our own, and to
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: surrender it all willingly and graciously to you to your
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: absolute sovereign control. Forgive us, our Father, for all those
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: times and places, and even the situations where we either
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: unknowingly or with great deliberation, manipulated circumstances or the minds
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: of other people to.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: Make certain we got our way.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: Please forgive us, help us today to repent fully and
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: genuinely of those sinful patterns and acts of pride and wilfulness,
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: and so blatantly and shamefully disregard you and feelings of others.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: Our Father, help us grow up and out of those
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: adolescent ways, to become more like your son Jesus, who
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: came not to be ser but to serve, and to
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: lay down his matchless life for sinners. Sinners like us,
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: undeserving and ungrateful sinners. Teach us to see ourselves rightly
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: before you and before those whom we serve and lead.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: I pray for anyone and all who may have heard
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: these words today who is now recognizing that they have
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: become like John Mark, or like Demas, or like Diotrophies.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: Stop the syndrome. Father, assist them as they step off
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: that track and evaluate their lives in light of the truth.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: I pray you would give them and us the discipline
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: the courage to do what is right, and then honor
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: and reward them in us for a decision. We do
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: love you, dear Father. We thank you for Christ who
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: loved us first, and we thank you for one another,
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: fellow members of the same family, who helped keep us
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: strong when we would otherwise run away than fall or
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: try to demand our own way. Thank you that they
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: are there to warn us, to drive us back to you.
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: Thank You for the Body of Christ. I pray and
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: ask for all this in the name of Jesus, our Lord,
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: the Head of the Church.
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: The preceding message, Adolescence and Adult Bodies was copyrighted in
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: nineteen eighty five and the sound recording was copyrighted in
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: twenty sixteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights are
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: reserved worldwide.