"Introduction to Start Here"
Start Here - Doing Hard Things Right Where You are • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Proposition - As we introduce this study today we will we will look at three things that teens go through: 1) the enthusiasm of the teen years, 2) the responsibilities of the teen years, and 3) the pressures of the teen years.
Interrogative question - What are you going to do with your teen years?
“Where Do Hard Things was an inspiring call to action, Start Here is the hands-on guidebook for a new way of living and leading. Alex and Brett know how to motivate young adults to live intentionally, think big, and aim high—and they do it with style. I highly recommend Start Here. It’s a book that will change how you think, what you dream about, and what you choose to do next.”
Scripture portrays the teen years as a time of vigour and strength. It speaks, of the pressures and expectations of youth, warns about the temptations facing young people, and instructs the teens about what is expected of them.
1. The enthusiasm of teen years -
1. The enthusiasm of teen years -
25 Let his flesh become fresher than in youth, Let him return to the days of his youthful vigor;
5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
12 Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace;
29 The glory of young men is their strength, And the honor of old men is their gray hair.
9 Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. 10 So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.
3 “Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the young men. In his shade I took great delight and sat down, And his fruit was sweet to my taste.
11 “His bones are full of his youthful vigor, But it lies down with him in the dust.
31 The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel.
30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,
13 “In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst.
2. The responsibilities of teens -
2. The responsibilities of teens -
Remember God -
12 “It will come about when I leave you that the Spirit of the Lord will carry you where I do not know; so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth.
5 For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my confidence from my youth.
1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”;
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. 26 It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the Lord. 27 It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth.
17 O God, You have taught me from my youth, And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.
14 But I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth.”
Respect the elderly -
32 ‘You shall rise up before the gray headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.
8 The young men saw me and hid themselves, And the old men arose and stood.
6 So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite spoke out and said, “I am young in years and you are old; Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you what I think.
1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers,
5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Honor parents -
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
3 ‘Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God.
2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.
4 but if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God.
Obey parents -
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;
20 My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not forsake the teaching of your mother;
22 Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
20 Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.
Examples of godly young men -
18 Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord, as a boy wearing a linen ephod.
33 Then Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.”
1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba. 2 Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 He did right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
42 And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; 43 and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, 44 but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45 When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. 46 Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. 48 When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” 49 And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. 51 And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
5 For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
Examples of godly young women -
36 So she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to the Lord; do to me as you have said, since the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon.”
16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
9 Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses.
3. Pressures of the teen years -
3. Pressures of the teen years -
The inexperience of youth -
7 “Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.
5 David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Lord shall be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all lands. Therefore now I will make preparation for it.” So David made ample preparations before his death.
1 Then King David said to the entire assembly, “My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is still young and inexperienced and the work is great; for the temple is not for man, but for the Lord God.
7 and worthless men gathered about him, scoundrels, who proved too strong for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he was young and timid and could not hold his own against them.
6 Then I said, “Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.”
12 Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
Temptations facing the young -
7 And I saw among the naive, And discerned among the youths A young man lacking sense,
22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.
13 “And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living.
30 but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible;
Troubles faced from the time of one’s youth -
7 “Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants, for I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, surely not a man will pass the night with you, and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.”
15 I was afflicted and about to die from my youth on; I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome.
1 “Many times they have persecuted me from my youth up,” Let Israel now say, 2 “Many times they have persecuted me from my youth up; Yet they have not prevailed against me.
The sins of youth -
26 “For You write bitter things against me And make me to inherit the iniquities of my youth.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; According to Your lovingkindness remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
Disrespect for older people -
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.
1 “But now those younger than I mock me, Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.
5 And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder And the inferior against the honorable.
12 Princes were hung by their hands; Elders were not respected.
Dishonoring parents -
18 “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. 20 “They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
20 A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish man despises his mother.
11 There is a kind of man who curses his father And does not bless his mother.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
Persistent battle of sin -
24 “But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 “Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
21 “I spoke to you in your prosperity; But you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your practice from your youth, That you have not obeyed My voice.
30 “Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in My sight from their youth; for the sons of Israel have been only provoking Me to anger by the work of their hands,” declares the Lord.
The example - sinfulness of Israel’s youth -
3 and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled.
8 “She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.
19 “Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 20 “She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21 “Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.
1 When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. 2 The more they called them, The more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols.
Examples of sinful young men -
17 Thus the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men despised the offering of the Lord.
2 Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judging in Beersheba. 3 His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.
6 In this manner Absalom dealt with all Israel who came to the king for judgment; so Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel.
8 But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him. 9 So he said to them, “What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?” 10 The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!’ But you shall speak to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! 11 ‘Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ” 12 Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, “Return to me on the third day.” 13 The king answered the people harshly, for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him, 14 and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.
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