Run Away From Adolescent Cravings!

Run Away From Adolescent Cravings!                                                    By Kelly Durant    1-12-14

2 Timothy 2:21-22, 21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

2. There is an old saying, and even a pop hit was made out of it, that says, “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger,” What a truth that is! I think all of us who are older wish so much we had made wiser decisions when we were younger! How many of us wish we had been more mature and not been such a know-it-all missing out on learning things we needed to know about life when we were younger?

Have you ever tried to get into the mind of the youth today? As Christians we should always desire to adapt and understand to win souls, especially the young ones!  1 Corinthians 9:19-23 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

So, for all of you here, to win the youth for Jesus, you and I must try to become as a young person living what they live today! Young people, you should try to mature understanding the older ones! My wife and I even had to get a Smartphone so we could understand and communicate with our daughter!  At home in the house she will text us from the bedroom, ha!

So how do we relate when the world changes so fast? Here is a common ground; Young people want to have fun and be entertained, agreed? They, and all of us, want to laugh and see everyone happy! The reality is all of us need more comic relief in life! We all have already experienced pain, embarrassments, and difficulties, and we don’t want more of it if we can avoid it. So young or old we all can relate that we desire more understanding, happiness, and sympathy in life and receive less criticism, pain, and judgementalness!

 3. Since my wife and I live with a young person that is 14, we try to get into her world and understand her and find ways to inspire her to listen to the things of God more and it is not easy in today’s high tech society. Never before have we as parents had so much competition for attention with dazzling outside sources! From texting some young people don’t even look up much are even having back problems from being bent over on their smartphone all the time!

There is enough material on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and dozens of others, along with homework and online classes, news groups, blogs, and everything on the web to keep a person busy reading and typing for 1,000’s of years! There exists hundreds of millions of hours of video and music and hundreds of billions of pages including online books, business inventories, government info, and info beyond possible calculation! And that is just in English!

We all have information overload! I think you and I don’t mind watching a dog do tricks on YouTube for a few minutes, you or I don’t mind some pop songs, but in the end, but discernment is needed more than ever! If I had to be young again and had to compete with the peer pressure and image status of the famous attractive talented people, do homework on time, show up for practice at sports and music events, respond to texts with friends or lose them, I would consider it very difficult to fit into my day prayer and Bible study time. Young people today are often as busy as a CEO or a pastor! No wonder they want to sleep until noon on Saturdays!

4. But no matter how difficult it is to fit God in whether you are young or old, it must be done, God must be first! No one can claim to be a Christian and not spend time with Christ! Agreed? Do you do that? As difficult as it may be to fit in your day time with Jesus, it is a life and death matter of your soul that you do it! This applies for both for young and old people! The options of how you spend your time with Christ are many: It can and should be done alone in silence, by reading the Bible, or listening to web sites of preaching, and most importantly for us as Salvationists, we must tune into Salvation Army publications and websites! Do you read them? There is a lot of good stuff here! I personally really love listening to the audio Bible! 

Without reserving some special time for God, you or I will become vulnerable & weak spiritually and full of the world’s poison and not have a sharpened sword to fight temptations and lusts that the enemy will attack us with. Without Jesus daily, Satan’s earthly demons will outsmart you and trick you to fall into one of his lies: Lies that happiness and excitement comes from ‘doing all you please’ embracing the antichrist postures of the world, and rejecting the Bible. One big lie is to get you to believe that your life is miserable and that you are a loser unless you get on aboard with the rest and enjoy sinful lusts! Never accept the lie thinking, ‘My life is horrible because I was not born in the home of a rich superstar, and I am nothing unless I become scandalous’.

Recall the old Indian tale that you have a good wolf on one shoulder and a bad one on the other and the one that grows the strongest is the one you feed and pay attention to!  What are you tuning into, the world or Christ? C.S. Lewis says, “The world is too much with us!” I agree!

The wolf on your left shoulder tells you, you are young, if you could only sell your soul and body to the right Disney or Hollywood insider, then you could get adoration and be rich and famous! If only the NBA would recruit me! But how do corrupt lifestyles work out? Remember Madonna who owns a home here on Brickell Ave.? Who boasted she slept her way to fame? Multitudes follow her path but never make it and they get abused by scum and scarred for life! Look at her now, (or any other corrupted star) she is a mental case, phobic and a has-been; we pray she can receive Jesus one day and follow Him and not follow her own mixed up ideas of spirituality which helps no one, not even herself!

 5. As parents 10 times a day we ask our young person at home, what are you looking at, what are you listening to? You know about that, right?  In reality this is the question for all of us, young people and adults, what is occupying your time and mind? What is influencing you? Evaluate, what is getting your attention for one entire day? You may shock yourself to discover what you feed on! Some people are shallow, vain, and spiritually anemic and don’t even see it!

Whatever you eat affects your body, right? Too little of the right things and you are anemic, too much sugar and diabetes will attack, too many monster drinks and nervousness attacks, right? We have to ask ourselves is our daily food too much from entertainment sources of people who are full of vanity and pride (and often they even worship Satan). Could they be leaving you feeling frustrated that you are just a nobody, not rich enough, not handsome or pretty enough to be successful or liked by anyone? Remember you are God’s child worth everything to God!

In Miami there is a horrible spiritual oppression that you must have a super body and money and the culture of vanity and pride of the flesh is scarring and even killing us! Miami has the highest amount of plastic surgeons in all the nation! Last year over 14 Billion dollars was spent on plastic surgery! That amount could feed all the hungry in many countries in Africa! God must be furious with people’s cravings to appear young feeding their selfish dark side of sin, pride, vanity, and selfishness, right?

1 John 2:15-17, 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever

6. Let’s focus back on verse 2 Tim 2:22 of today where it says, “Flee youthful lusts” (or the more modern English), ‘Run Away From Adolescent Cravings’ , what are these things? Timothy was a young man and Paul is teaching him (and everyone) how to be honorable and used by God.  To be used by God one must be holy, and run away from the appetites and cravings of the world escaping the wide roads that lead to destruction!

What historically have these cravings been? Can you identify the ever repeating powerful distractions that invade the soul and subvert the mind? The glamorized sins of cultures for millennia seem to be the lust for adoration and pride, and for beauty, riches, drugs, alcohol, and sex.  Cravings like these have led many a young person into Satan’s trap and slime pit of guilt and shame. Multi-millions of people spend the rest of their lives trying to recuperate from their past mistakes, police records, and shame! Sadly there are some young people that just give up and they think they do not have a future in this unloving world! Teen self-mutilation (cutting), depression, and suicide is at an all-time high in this nation! Not enough older ones listen to or about them in order to help these suffering young people through their crisis.

After the consequences of sin take effect, then always that young person, their parents, and many other people involved have to pay the high price for their sins. The wrecked car, the jail time, the unplanned for baby, the addiction problem, and maybe even a funeral happens just because someone got involved with wrong things of the world. Trying to be cool imitating some famous self-destructive actor or artist always produces bad results. In my youth many famous people died from drug overdoses.

7. Everyone young or old must always fight to “Flee youthful lusts”! We must obey as in verse 22 says to “follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”. Those that learn this early in their Christian lives progress greatly because God blesses them! Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Young people, obey God and you will never be tossed away as trash like a beggar; instead you will become a glorious unique leader walking in God’s holy ways!

Many people that I have known personally in my life that have tried to live glamorous in their own way without God, who pursued dreams of happiness with drugs, sex, and rock ‘n roll in the pride of life, have all ended up miserable with many deceptions, bitterness’s, and depressions! I lament greatly that I fell into youthful cravings for a short time when young, but thank God Jesus saved me and I escaped that lifestyle at age 21! I put myself in God’s hands and He has never failed me yet!

8. So I challenge young and old today, don’t criticize too much, but have mercy on others! The youth in today’s Generation of “I”, due to the abundance of sin of the world have been forced to adapt to living in their self-protective “I-”worlds where there is fierce competition for everything; for friends, study, sports, or jobs.

Don’t judge young people too harshly as they have to often deal with getting their character trashed on Twitter, Facebook or on the web usually for taking a Godly stance on some issue. All Christians live in conflict with the values of today’s issues concerning abortion, sexuality, and politics and it is mesmerizing the righteous because the ‘political correct’ proselytizers from hell pressure people at schools, in colleges, and at the workplace to conform to, indulge in, and promote the evil hypocritical anti-christ corruptions.

And sad to say, a majority of adults out there, instead of being good role models, are giving the youth bad or hypocritical examples of immature self-centered worldly behavior. Let’s review a warning about that Matthew 18:6 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea”. Please protect, love, and encourage our young people! Only 4% of the youth of today attend church and we need to make it as pleasant as possible for them! Many of the problems of the youth in the world today, sad to say is the fault of the adult’s bad examples. May the Lord help us as Christians to be adapting and living an example of peace, holiness, and love contrary to the people of the world!

9. Considering the cruelty in the world, I think all of us can relate to wanting to be more like how young people are. We all want to laugh, as it helps us forget for a moment about the horrific painful realities of life. Everyone feels sad and powerless to change such things as domestic abuse, violence, sickness, poverty, and war. But when maturity and the Holy Spirit takes charge in a person’s life (young or old) then that person (you and I) begins a new chapter and starts trying to alleviate the suffering of other people the best way possible in our community. Only by bringing the gospel of Jesus to others can we change the world.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be like children partying and enjoying life all the time?  Matthew 18:3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”. Well the good news is we will party forever when we get to heaven in the, “Marriage Supper of the Lamb’, but until that day comes we must flee youthful lusts, preach the gospel adapting to the age or language of the people, and get dirty in the world’s slime pits of sins in our communities to save souls for Jesus!

Young people love mission trips. Young people want and deserve opportunities and chances to serve and to “follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace”, so may we as adults be ready to help, support, and serve them! Remember the perspective that there is a time for everything in the seasons of life, and God has His timing for each person according to our will being ready. Consider this: maturity in God comes not with age but from spending time with God!

So I recommend that young people (and for the older ones as well!) to choose to follow daily righteousness, faith, charity, peace. Let’s pray…Lord Jesus, could it be that I need to repent of being caught up some in some damaging craving that is offensive to You? Ask, “Lord, have I walked a mile in the other pair of shoes (be it of the young person, or of the old) to be able to love and understand them?  Do I have any sin of being intolerant and/or judgmental”? In some ways most everyone is guilty of not following in “righteousness, faith, charity (love), peace”. So let’s pay close attention to the Holy Spirit’s voice on our shoulder! Enjoy God, who is an eternally young and fun while you are serving Him and others.  Pray to relate to the “I” gen better and win them for Jesus! “I” gen, and pray to mature in Jesus!