Sermon Prep Outline | Proverbs 17:11

“Cause And Effect”

Introduction: There is a “rule” or part of the universe that God has put into life, and that is cause and effect. It can’t be broken! It’s a tale as old as time!

Cause - Your diet consists of cheeseburgers, pizza, wings, ice cream, cookies and Dr. Pepper.

Effect - Even for the disgusting people out there that won’t gain anything from eating that, there will be a negative effect on your body.

Cause - You lift weights, and you eat right, the protein and supplements

Effect - You gain muscle, over time, you will see it.

Cause - For 3 nights in a row, you go to sleep at 1:30 a.m. and wake up at 6:00 a.m.

Effect - That will be made evident in your body. You will struggle to stay awake during school, church, even normal conversations!

Cause - You are on your phone 10+ hours a day playing games on your phone, scrolling through social media.

Effect - When it comes time to concentrate and read a book, Bible, listen to your teacher, preaching, your brain will have trouble focusing.

There are some cause and effect’s that are more important than others… Maybe the most important Cause and Effect’s happen during your teen years.

These are truly the most formable times in your life.

It’s in your teen years you begin to get a sense of the direction of your life. You develop habits that for good or bad, will most likely last a lifetime. You begin taking interest in activities that you may do for the rest of your life. You begin thinking about what you will do after you graduate.

College, work a job, go into ministry. A lot of the beginning stages come during this time in your life right now. It’s such a vital crossroads in your life!

One of the reasons it’s so important, is because these formable decisions you are making right now, each one leads somewhere (not saying you can’t change later down the road, it just becomes harder). Each decision, each case, has an effect.

Cause - How you pay attention on a test, or the grade you get on a test

Effect - That effects your overall gpa. The college you get into, the job you can get.

Cause - Eating habits

Effect - It will effect your health.

Cause - How you treat your siblings

Effect - Those interactions will determine how close or distant you are from them.

Cause - How you treat your parents

Effect - There are ramifications that come as a result of that very important relationship that could last your whole life!

Cause - How you choose friends

Effect - As Pastor always says, show me your friends and I will show you your future. The friends you have right now and the friends you make in the coming years will greatly impact your future and where you are spiritually in 5, 10, 15 years…

Cause - How you treat the relationship with those who have influence on your life. You choose how much time you spend with the influences God has put in your life.

Effect - There will be a time in college, marriage, when you have kids, when you are 26, 27, 30, 40 years old, there will be a time when you need someone to talk to. Someone who you know will really tell you and help you.

You can’t escape cause and effect. It’s life.

Maybe the most important Cause & Effect in your life comes in the form of rebellion. And the amount of rebellion that is in your heart and life. Proverbs 17:11 - “An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.”

Cause - An evil man (someone who is characterized by sin and sinful decisions…) this evil man can get to the point in their life, where rebellion is at the hub, or the core of his life. Where every thought and action is filtered through rebellion. There is only rebellion flowing out.

Just being transparent with you all, I don’t sense that there is a lot of rebellion that is in the life’s of those sitting here.

But I do believe that there are some that are struggling with some rebellion in their heart toward their parents, towards their other authorities, towards the rules and standards that have been placed in their life, towards the situation God has them in.

But for the majority, I don’t sense a rebellious spirit. I do my best to be aware of situations in your life (Obviously Mrs. Brielle and I can’t read minds so please talk to us, if you need help or you are struggling, you are always welcome to come talk to us!) I am thankful we don’t have a rebellious youth group.

It hasn’t always been that way and it is not guaranteed to be that way in the future if we are not careful.

For example, there have been plenty of times that I have asked you all to help with a project that you probably didn’t want to do, maybe setting up for MPM or some other church event, ladies helping Mrs. Brielle in the kitchen, and for th majority of y’all, you have a good spirit and I am thankful, it is not always easy to do those things. It’s not always easy when we go to a restaurant that you don’t like on outreach, you don’t get to do everything you want to at sports practice, or you are forced to play something that you don’t like. I am thankful that the spirit of our youth group right now is that you are willing to do whatever, whatever is best for the group, you’re willing to serve and help out when you can, and I am so thankful for that!

I know, that doesn’t mean that you don’t disagreed with some of the things that we are doing or that you didn’t like it, but you cooperated with it! I am thankful for that spirit.

But, just because there does’t seem to be a majority of “ONLY rebellion” teens in here, doesn’t mean that rebellion does’t exist in your heart, or doesn’t mean that you won’t grow into an ONLY rebellion teen.

The little amount of rebellion that is there, if not taken care of, can grow into a spiritual and many times even emotionally out of control individual. Over and over and over again I’ve seen a once sweet spirit, change into ONLY rebellion. It’s happened to others, it can happen to any of you, including me!

We still have a ways to go in Proverbs, but I hope to start Changed Into His Image after the Proverbs series at some point. In the book, he takes about the different kind of rebels.

Assertive Rebel - This is someone who is very vocal about their rebellion, very public about it… They say: “I won’t obey. Nobody is going to tell me what to do.” Many times that is the type of rebel we think of and we think that is the only type there is, but there are more than just outwardly, assertive rebels… Cooperative Rebel -This rebel is not as noticeable… He says: “I will obey since it gets me what I want.”

Compliant - At best, he is obedient. But drags his feet, dawdles, is intentionally inefficient, slams doors, punishes others with his attitude. Waits until the last minute to do anything. Does something only half way or just barley scrapes by… Sense Of Duty - This rebel is often called a good kid, they are a good church kid. They have a perfectionist mentality, and only do right to keep up the good image because life works better and easier for them that way. It is not real, they are not obeying or acting this way because of a sincere desire, it just gets them the desired results with their parents or youth pastor.

Passive Rebel - This person plays the victim. They say, “I can’t obey, I forgot to obey,” or, “I didn’t know to obey.” This rebel is careless, will always make excuses of why they can’t obey, “it is because my parents are flawed, it’s because they are unreasonable,” always offering excuses or playing the victim because of various reasons… So, there are different types of rebels, and you may be one of those. I want you to really think about it. Because you nee to take care of rebellion when it’s small.

When you are told even the simple word “NO” it can often bring outward or inward rebellion. It may not be screaming or outbursts but many times when I or Mrs. Brielle will say no, I don’t think that is a good idea, a lot of the times there is a “but I… or a smart remark back.” That should never happen with us but especially with your parents.

If there is a sense of defensiveness or or pride trying to prove your point, there is a small spirit of rebellion there. So, even though there may not be very many “ONLY” rebellion teens in here, it doesn’t mean rebellion doesn’t exist, and it does’t mean that it won’t grow and become out of control.

Each one of you know when rebellion rises up within you. You feel frustration and anger and bitterness and a need to do something about it! Take care of it then because there is an “Effect” for the cause of rebellion.

Effect - “Therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.”

Yikes! This is a personification of “death”. One commentator referred to this “cruel messenger” as a “merciless official”. He said, “This expression could refer to a pitiless messenger the king would send; but it could also refer to storms, pestilence, or any misfortune that served as God’s messenger of retribution.” Meaning - When you become an ONLY rebellion teen, there are going to be some times of MAJORLY BAD reaping due to your sowing …All of it could have been avoided if the rebellion was taken care of when it was small.

You will face moments in your life that feel like death. Just a major storm that comes in your life as a result of the decision to become a rebel. That effect can be avoided if it is taken care of.

Camp- I can’t help but think of camp coming up in just 6 WEEKS!! There are many opportunities to act like a rebel while we are at camp.

There will be an opportunity to have a rebellious spirit before we even get to camp.

The CAUSE is the dress code and not being able to wear shorts guys, or ladies not being able to wear the length shorts or skirt that you want and that rebellious spirit can start to seep in.

The EFFECT is that you come in to camp with a bad attitude and thus you are distracted at camp from the true purpose, you start a bad attitude in someone who didn’t have an attitude before because of your complaining, you distract myself or Mrs. Brielle from helping someone else because you can’t get over the dress code, the no cell phone or electronics rule, and on it goes…

It could start on the bus…

The CAUSE is that you don’t get the seat you want and you affront as close to your friends and so you throw a fit.

The EFFECT is that because you have such a bad attitude that you miss the opportunity to get to know other people or to talk to someone you wouldn’t always get to and invest in that relationship.

Here is another one…

The CAUSE are the sports and you refuse to have a good attitude because you didn’t get to play on the A team, a call didn’t go your way, we get beat again, your friend doesn’t pass you the ball and they miss a shot that you know you would’ve made to win the game.

The EFFECT is that you have a bad attitude and it effects your other team mates, you blow up and cost the rest of the group sportsmanship, you are so focused on a bad call that you are distracted during the preaching.

One of the biggest CAUSES, when you hear preaching you don’t think you need to change, you don’t listen because your tired, you don’t go forward because you are embarrassed or you don’t think you can change, you only respond because everyone else is responding and you need to keep up appearances.

The EFFECT is you miss out on the truth you desperately needed, you continue in your rebellion and you go on to be punished…

There are so many CAUSES that if we let a little bit of rebellion and pride in our hearts, the EFFECT is that we waste a week of camp that could change this youth group and thus change family, a church, and ultimately the world!

We have to be so careful because rebellion exists in all of us. And it is just another form of pride. And when there is pride in our lives, we are resisted by God, He cannot be close to us and when we are away from God we open ourselves up to making some awful mistakes! So, on a scale of 1-10, how much rebellion do you have? What kind of rebel are you?

Are you an assertive rebel, lashing out at your parents or openly scoffing your parents or youth pastor or youth pastor’s wife in from of your friends? Are you a cooperative rebel. Only obeying, only doing what you do so you can stay out of trouble, just waiting for your time to do what you want? Are you a passive rebel who makes excuses as to why you can’t be this way or that way, why you cant obey, why you can’t be better or do better, that you forget or you are the victim and thus can’t listen.

I’ve said this before, but we already have a hard enough time dealing with the circumstances in our life, the trials, the health problems, the death of loved ones, the changes of life. That is hard enough so why do we try to add to it by bringing on the consequences of our sinful and rebellious actions and spirit? We can’t stop all bad things from happening to us, but we can avoid the cruel messenger coming and life feeling like death, receiving the consequences of our pride filled life.

Conclusion-When rebellion wants to spring up in your life, say no, and take care of it while it’s small. Take care of the rebellion in your heart now so you can the whole youth group can have an effect and life changing week at camp. Be a teen that puts cause and effect into a good light. You have the right spirit, you are humble and you receive God’s presence and His blessing. Rather than living indoor pride and rebellion and receiving the stiff arm from God and also the consequences that comes from it. CAUSE: Rebellious attitude. EFEECT: Resistance from God. CAUSE: Be humble EFEECT: receive God’s blessing.