Hi, my name is Rick Bloodworth. This is the Common Sense Christian channel. And today I want to talk to you about what I believe is important for every graduating senior to be thinking about Before they go on to the next step, I first heard this talk when I was probably a young man of about 22 or 23. Obviously, I was out of high school by that time. I had recently graduated college and a preacher by the name of Jack Carter was doing a gospel meeting. for us in Casper, Wyoming, and he spoke on this topic and since that time, I've had the opportunity to speak on this very topic, probably to over somewhere between 25 and 30 graduating classes through the years. As a matter of fact, I spoke to, to our graduating class from Happy Texas's high school for this year, just last night and this is what I told them, and this is what I remember hearing some. And the idea is, it's your turn. As a, as a young man or a young woman graduates high school, they're having all sorts of things that, that are going to expand their freedom in ways that they may never have experienced before. It's true that most of them by this time have their own car, Or at least they have access to, to a vehicle, and that gives them a great amount of freedom right there. But once a young man or a young woman graduates high school, and especially if they're going to leave the house, whether they're going to college or whether they're going out into the job field in, into the world there's just an awful lot of temptations that come up and, and these temptations are hard not to yield to and so here, here is. Here is the, the message. If you want, in your life, and especially once you leave home for the first time, if you want to start partying and drinking and taking drugs, even though these things are illegal, very likely at the age that you're leaving high school, and certainly the drugs are illegal, You can do that if you want. You'll figure out a way to do that if you want. And God will let you do it because it's your turn. If you want to get involved with premarital sex, if, if you want to just young ladies if you'll pardon the expression, live like a dog in heat, God will let you do that because it's your turn. And young men, if you want to live like an alley cat on the prowl, You can do that if you want, because it's your turn. And young ladies, you're certainly going to find plenty of men who are going to want to accommodate you as you seek that type of a lifestyle. And even now, the young men, you're going to find plenty of young ladies who are more than eager to accommodate you and, and your desires. And, and you can just enter into casual relationship after casual relationship if you want, because it's your turn. If you want, once you have started this type of a lifestyle and you find that you might suffer what one of our recent presidents called the penalty of pregnancy. And you decide that you'll get rid of that pregnancy just as casually as some people get rid of the morning trash. You can do that, if you want, because it's your turn. You can go through, through college now, if you want. And, and if you want to cheat, you'll be able to find plenty of ways to cheat. You can cheat on your homework, you can cheat on your tests. With artificial intelligence, you probably won't even get caught. You can do that if you want, because it's, it's your turn. As a matter of fact, once you get out of college, you can enter into the business world, and you can continue to cheat if you desire. You can cheat your boss out of a fair day's labor in exchange for a fair day's pay. if you want. You can just kind of goof off as much as you possibly can, watch the clock and, and get out of there just as quickly as possible. In other words, you can give him a subpar performance or her a subpar performance in exchange for a fair pay. You can do that if you want, because it's your turn. And if you want to get really serious about your job, but so serious to the point where instead of worshiping God, you begin to worship the almighty dollar, you can do that. You can, you can climb the ladder of success, not caring one bit who you have to pull off of the rung in front of you. And you can climb rung by rung in that way till the Finally, you get to the top, and you can ring the bell, and at the end of life, you can die with the most toys, and you can win the game if you want to, because it's your turn. And speaking of cheating, young men, once you get married. If you want to cheat on your wife, you can, you can do that too, because it's your turn. And young women, you can cheat on your husband if you want, because it's your turn. And for all these things, God will permit you to do this. You can be highly critical of others. You can curse others when their backs turned, or even when they're face, they're facing you, if you want. You can treat them like dirt. You can gossip about them, if you want. You can, you can hurt them to the very core of their being, if you want, and then just casually laugh about it, as if it's nothing. And you can do all these things because it's your turn. In short, you can live this life for your own selfish means. You can just go from fleeting pleasure to fleeting pleasure. if you want. You can harm all sorts of people along the way, but you can have your conscience so covered over that after a while it won't even bother you. You can live this way until your last breath if you want, and God will let you do that for as long as you draw breath, because it's your turn. But there's two things I want you to think about, especially for those of you who are standing on the brink of an exciting new life. The first is if you live that way. Someday there will be a day of reckoning. Whether you believed in God or not will not matter one bit as far as the fact that someday you will kneel before God and you will find out that he's real. And if, if you, if you do believe in God, but you just feel like his grace will cover any sin, no matter if you repent of it or not, That he just loves you so much he's going to let you live in any way you want you can At some some point there will be a day of reckoning a judgment in which god will go over Your life And if he finds you to have fallen short if he finds you not to be in christ Either because you never became a christian or because you left christ The Christian path. Someday there will be a day of reckoning. That's the first thing. But the second thing that I want you to keep in mind is far more important than that. And it's just this. You were created for something better. You were created for excellence. You were created for a life that God does very much want you to enjoy to the fullest, but in His way. On his terms, not your own. He gives us so much in this life. Just look around you. Just think about the things he's given you. Think about the places of beauty that you have been, the natural landscapes that you've just been in awe of, the sunrises, the sunsets that God has shared with you in your life. And you realize very quickly that the one who created such a beautiful world does not want you to have a bad time. He wants you to enjoy it. When you think of the foods that we can eat and all the flavors and all the colors that we have in life to enjoy different things. And, and, and you think about the fact that, that he allows us to have proper relationships and he allows us to become married someday to, to, to our life partner. And he allows us to enjoy that and to enjoy all the things that are rightful to enjoy in marriage. God loves you and God wants you to experience a life filled with joy and you are created for that. You are created for that to serve him as you enjoy these blessings. God is placed within each one of us a set of talents or gifts. I believe, I believe they're, they're each one are a seed of genius that he gives to you in a unique way. And if you will nourish that seed, if you will carefully water that seed and protect it as it sprouts into it, into something beautiful. You will find that this seed of genius that he has placed within you will allow you to accomplish great things in life. Things that will satisfy you beyond your wildest dreams. Things that you can do in an honest way, in a good and solid way, in a way of integrity. And in a way where you love your neighbor and you love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and you love Jesus in the same way and he gives you these opportunities, these talents and the resources to go along with them so that you can live for him. And he wants you to enjoy this life. One of the things that's really sad for me is so many people think that God's way is restrictive in such a way as to cause you pain or to cause you not to enjoy things. He's always trying to stop you from doing something that you may want to do is what so many people think. But the reason that he tries to prevent you from sin, that he commands you not to sin, and the reason that sin is sin in the first place is that sin has consequences. Sin harms other people, and sin harms you, and God would spare you that pain. And that's why he tells us that sin is sin. And so, we need to embrace this fact that God has created us for something better than just a selfish pursuit of selfish pleasures. of temporary pleasures and begin to pursue the things in his service that will really bring us a life of joy and peace and a hope of heaven someday, hope of eternity with him. This life is just a taste of that eternity, by the way. Think about this, especially for those of you who may be 17, 18 years old and think that your life is coming to a close quickly because you've made too many mistakes already. If you have already made a number of mistakes, let me first say this. Welcome to the club. We all have made mistakes. Some of those mistakes have been sinful, consequential mistakes. But your life is not over. It's just beginning. You and I have the same amount of time, even though I'm 62 years old, 63 years old right now, and that's because we have eternity waiting for us. And, and God did not create you for what 70, 80 years. If your life is average and then for this life to be over. He created you for eternity and this life in many ways is a test only God can explain exactly why He created us in the first place But understand this even though you didn't ask to be born the fact that you were is a tremendous gift And even if your life is hard, it's gonna be hard at times. It's still a tremendous gift with a lot to look forward to. You have an eternity waiting for you in heaven if you'll just stand the test right now. But you must stand the test. And though you may have already failed it, pick yourself up and come back to God on God's terms. I want to give you three things that will change your life if you will let them. If you'll do these three things, I can guarantee you that you're going to have a good life. And I know that because I have tried to live without these three things, but I've also After I've caught myself, begun to live my life with these three, three things. And what are they? The first thing is this, read the Bible as much as you can. The Bible is God's love letter to you. The Bible is God's explanation for why you're here. The Bible is a history book that tells us of great men and women who have succeeded in life, far beyond their imagination. It's also a book of those, a history of those, who have failed him miserably and have brought not only untold sorrow upon their own life, but untold sorrow upon the lives of others. In the New Testament, we read of God's plan. We read of his saving grace. We read of the saving blood of Jesus Christ. We read of the saving, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And we also read of the things that we're required to do. And if we'll do these things, though we fail a million times, if we'll try and do our best to find out what the word of God says and to do them to the best of our ability, our life's going to be so much better. The New Testament tells you how God wants you to live right now. The Old Testament is filled with, with insights as to the personality of God and to the expectations of God and to the holiness of God. But the New Testament tells you how you're to live right now. How you're to become a Christian right now, how you're to live for God and Christ right now, and for your neighbor. Read the Bible as much as you can. The second is this, pray as much as you can. Start your day off with prayer. Before you set a foot out of bed, thank God for the day. And ask Him for help as you go through the day. And then as you go through the day, just, just pray to Him continually. thanking him for the myriad of blessings that you enjoy each day from the good food that you're starting your day off with. And if you don't think it's so good, at least for the food that nourishes you to start your day off with the friends that God has given you with the opportunities that God has given you, you live in America. You live in the richest nation on the face of the earth. This nation has problems. There's no question. And I believe you're going to be expected to solve your share of those problems. But we still live in a marvelous nation with marvelous opportunities. And you need to be thanking God every day for those opportunities and asking his help to make sure that you exercise and, and, and, and explore those opportunities as much as you can. You get to talk to the creator of the universe. Think about this. If you could talk to anybody in the world, who would it be? Would it be some celebrity that's popular right now? Would it be some politician that seems to have power? Would it be somebody that, that has gone that you'd like to talk to again? Like, like maybe a grandparent or a parent? You get to talk to the creator of the universe. And you get to present your problems to the one who is the one who knows exactly what your problems are like, and he knows exactly the solution for those problems, and he can give you the exact solution for it. He has the power to help you with that. You're not gonna, he's not gonna magically make everything disappear in life as far as our challenges. But he'll help you with those things that you can't do on your own. Pray as much as you can. And the third thing is worship with the church every time the doors are open. You might, you might say, well, what church? Well, you read the Bible and you'll find out a description. of the church. You'll give it a very full view of what the church was to be like. And then you go out and you search for that church because you're going to find that there, there are people who are worshiping in the way that God has commanded you to worship. You'll find that there are people who really do love one another as they're commanded to love one another. You're going to find people who are not just hypocrites 24 7, who really are trying to help one another. and the needy who are trying to get the Word of God to different places where they may not have as easy access to the Word of God. You will find groups of people who are encouraging and loving and who are waiting to see you come through that door. You'll find that church described within the New Testament, and then you go out and you find it, as close to that church as you can. It is, in the New Testament, referred to as the Church of God, the Church of Christ, the Church of the Lord. It's referred to as the Body of Christ. Most of the time, it's just referred to as the Church. But it's always talking about that same body of saved individuals, whom, after they have obeyed God's gospel plea, Have been added to that church by God. If you seek it, you'll find it. And once you do, you go as often as you can. I would encourage you to go to Bible class on Sunday morning and, and certainly to the worship on Sunday morning and to partake of the communion each first day of the week. That seems to be the focal point, by the way, of the formal worship. If they worship twice on Sunday, go back on Sunday evening. If they worship in the middle of the week, go back in the middle of the week. Go when you can, as often as you can. When I went to college, I got away from my mommy and daddy. And I broke free from, from their difficult rules, their constraining rules. And I stopped going to church as regularly as I should have, and I paid the penalty for that. It was like a vitamin deficiency where you just keep getting weaker and weaker, but you don't know exactly why. Well, I kept getting weaker and weaker, but I didn't know exactly why. And it wasn't until I started getting back and worshiping with the church on the first day of every week and partaking of the communion, reminding me that, that my sins had a cost, but that that cost has been paid. And it wasn't until I got back with that group of loving Christians who were doing everything they could to encourage me. That I begin to really enjoy life again. I've never stopped since that point. So these three things, read the Bible as much as you can. Pray as much as you can. Go to church every time the doors are open. And when I say go to church, I mean, worship with the church where they're worshiping. Every time you have the opportunity for that, that will change your life. It may sound too simple. And it is simple in the aspect that it is not complex. It's not hard to understand, but let me assure you, it's hard to do, but if you'll do it, it's going to give you a good life. I want to close with a few passages of scripture and then a quick thought. The first is this, in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, we read of King Solomon, and we read at a time in his life where where he just wanted to find out what it was that gave men pleasure. And so in Ecclesiastes 2 verse 1, he says this, I thought in my heart, come now, I'll test you with pleasure to find out what is good. Kind of sounds like a high school senior, doesn't it? It may even sound like a few 40 year olds that you know. I'll test you with pleasure to find out what is good, but that also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said, is foolish, and what does pleasure accomplish? I tried cheering myself with wine. Some of you, perhaps, have already tried that. Embracing folly, my mind still guided me with wisdom. Remember Solomon had been given more wisdom than any man by God. But now he's misusing it and he's going after sinful pleasures. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives. I undertook great projects. I built houses and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees. I made reservoirs to water the flourishing trees. Nothing wrong with these things, great projects, but he appeared to be doing them just to be achieving physical things. And then he said this, I bought male and female slaves, had other slaves born into my house. I also had more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem. I amassed silver and gold for myself, the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers. He had a stereo, didn't. And a harem as well, the delights of the hearts of men. He did not deny himself any sexual pleasure he wanted. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I refused my heart no pleasure. He said, My heart took delight in all my work. This was the reward for all my labor. In other words, during his turn, he did what he wanted that he thought would make him happy. But look at this in verse 11, Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun. Solomon tried every physical pleasure that you can imagine. And he found out that the pursuit of physical pleasure and the pursuit of physical accomplishments without having God in mind turned out to be meaningless, a chasing after the wind. But, towards the end of his life, this is what he said. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 13. All has been heard, here's the conclusion of the matter. of man. Your life, the whole of your life, consists of pleasing God, fearing God, and keeping his commandments. And then he tells us why. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. I want to say again that many of you by this point may have already made mistakes that you think are irrecoverable. Maybe you're my age or even older and you just look at a life that seems to be too wasted. I want you to know as long as you draw breath, it is not. You still have the opportunity to come back to God on his terms. You can repent of your sins. You can turn away from those sins and you can start living for God and you can start embracing the good life that he's called you to and it is a good life. I have worked with youth groups for over 40 years now, and for over 40 years, I believe, for most of that time anyway, I've told them the same thing. I have more fun than anybody I know. I love life. I eat it up with a spoon. The blessings that God has given are enjoyable, but we have to stick with those things that are righteous if we truly want to enjoy life without guilt and shame You can live your life on your own terms in any way you want, answering to no one, including God. And I want to say again, God will let you do that because it's your turn. But my encouragement to you is to do something better with your turn, so that that turn someday can continue on into eternity, where you get to serve God in the ultimate peace and joy and happiness in His eternal presence. I don't know what heaven's going to be like, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I don't deserve it, but I am planning on going to the one place I don't deserve. It's by His grace and it's by the shed blood of Christ, no doubt, but we also have our part to do. So during your turn, let me encourage you to find out from the scriptures what your part is and then to do it with all your heart and to be thankful every day for that opportunity to do just that. That's the lesson for today. It's your turn. What will you do with it? Thank you so much for listening. I hope this helps. If it does, if you'll pass it on to somebody else, you, you think that it might help I'd appreciate it very much. And, and they may just thank you as well. And again, I want to emphasize, this is not my original thoughts, but I have used it in my life and I have found it to work. We'll see you next time.