Traits of Maturity in Youth - John Miller

Christian greeting again to each one of you this afternoon. Open your Bibles with

me to Matthew chapter twelve for our text. Matthew Chapter twelve. Like to

notice versus the latter part of verse thirty four Matthew twelve thirty four. Out

of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh expressions of maturity in youth.

The things that spring from your hearts as young people indicate maturity or immaturity.

And it is only when your hearts are completely yielded to God that you

can mature in your Christian life and experience the way God that you should and

Psalms one hundred and nineteen, verse nine, don't turn to that. There's

a question there, and I want one of you young men to ask the

question, and then you give the answer. Songs one hundred and nineteen,

verse nine. What's the question? Yes, yes, and the answer thank

you very good. According to my own personal experience and that of our children,

what I have observed in other young people, it's quite normal that you

want to be considered as mature and grown up. There's nothing wrong with that.

That's okay. You desire to be looked up to as as grown up

in mature and that's fine. At what point in life does one attain maturity?

And when when do those noble qualities take possession of a young man or

a young lady. And I have the persons that you consider to be mature,

did they reach that state? Uh? Quickly? I trust that the

answers to these three questions will be reached by the time that we conclude the

message this afternoon. I'd like to briefly, if I can briefly notice three

young men in the Bible and how their actions and the way they lived produce

maturity in the in their lives. The first one, open your bibles to

Luke chapter two, which is the example Jesus. In Luke chapter two,

Jesus the life of Jesus provides a real good example for all of us of

a maturity that is coming into bloom or blossoming at a very young age.

Chapter two. Let me see, maybe we can start at verse forty one.

Now, his brother went to Jerusalem amory every year the feast of the

Passover, And when he was twelve years old, he went up to Jerusalem

after the custom of the feast, and when they had fulfilled the day's they

returned, and the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his

mother knew not of it, but they, supposing him to have been in

the company, went to day's journey, and they sought him among their kin,

folks and acquaintance, And when they found him not, they turned back

again into Jerusalem seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days

they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors,

both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished

noticed that at his understanding and answers, And when they saw him they were

amazed. And his mother said unto him, son, why hast thou dealt

us with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing,

And he said, unto them, how is it that ye sought me?

Didn't you know that I must be about my father's business? And they understood

not the saying which he spoken to them, and he went down with him,

noticed fifty one, and he went down with him and came to Nazareth,

and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in

her heart. Done in fifty two and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and

in favor with God and Man. Here Jesus was talking with these teachers.

He's earned men. He was asking them questions and answering questions as well,

at the age of twelve. Very commendable. I like that verse, but

I think maybe let's notice fifty one again. Here his parents came. They

didn't know he had been left behind, so they came and they found him

there doing what we just talked about, and it was not time to go

home. So in fifty one it says he went down with him and came

to Nazareth and was subject onto his parents. That's very important. He was

subject onto his parents. It doesn't matter if you're sixteen, eighteen, or

twenty one unless you have If you have difficulties in being subject to your parents,

your immature. If you want to be mature, you need to be

subject to your parents. Jesus was subject and with reason. It goes on

to say that in the next verse he increased in wisdom's stature and in favor

with God and man. Is that what you desire? You need to be

subject if you have godly parents that are concerned about you, they care about

you, they pray for you. Then you need to be subject to Europeans

out of the abundance of the heart. Come out, speak uth, speaketh.

It's very important that you were subject to your parents. Where is it

most important to act mature and growing up? When we're when you're with a

group of young people, or when you're at home with the ever observing eyes

of your mom and dad. Where is it most important? Probably both of

them. But at home is where you were you going to make or break

the test. If you can't do it at home, you're really not doing

it at any place. So way too often, and I speak from experience,

as young people we have kind of like a don't care attitude. If

we have a don't care attitude at home with mom and dad, we are

in mature and is there any wonder that we can't be like Jesus was here

in fifty two. He increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God

and Man. Okay, youth, may that be your testimony? Going on

to the next one. Open your bibles with me to Genesis chapter twenty two.

In Genesis chapter twenty two, we have a good example here of Isaac

I would like to read maybe the first twelve verses. Often, when when

this account is read and explained, Abraham is the outstanding character. But I

would like to notice Isaac this afternoon is that figure. Let's read Genesis twenty

two, maybe the verse ten or twelve verses. And it came to pass

after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham,

and he said, behold here I am. And he said, take now

thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get

thee into the land of Morale, and offer him there for a burnt offering,

upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And

Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two

of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and cleaved the

wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went onto the place which

God had told him of. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his

eyes and saw the place a far off, and Abraham said, unto the

young man, abide here with the ass, and I and the lad will

go yonder and worship and come again to you. What you're thinking here?

How old. Do you think maybe a lad was or maybe that has changed

for today? How old is the lad? Okay? Good? And Abraham

took the wood of the burned offering and laid it upon Isaac's son, and

he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both

of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said,

my father, And he said, here am i, my son, And

he said, behold the fire in the wood. But where is the lamb

for the burned offering? Why do you think that? Isaac asked this question?

What do you think? He asked, where's the lamb for the burned

offering? Can you tell me? You tell me what? Yes, he

didn't have any with him, but I think it would indicate to me.

I'm not sure either. Does it indicate that he had gone with his dad

before? And he noticed they always had a lamb, and this time they

didn't have one along. So he asked that question. Notice what it goes

on to say. And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself

a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.

When Abraham said this to Isaac, I think Isaac got the hint that he

is going to be the lamb okay. And they came to the place which

God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there and laid the

wooden order and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon

the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slick

him. Okay, Isaac, he as a young lad. Let's say he

was twelve years old, or maybe he was fifteen years old, and he

was just like you, well I are. And here Abraham, after he

had gotten the altar ready, he said, okay, son, And Abraham

was probably crying, he probably had tears running down his face. He said,

come here, son, He said, can you put your hands together?

And he tied his hands. What would you have done if your dad

would have done that to you? You're not sure? What would you have

done? Well, how would you have accomplished that? Or you would have

run away? What about the girls? What would you have done? You're

not sure? Wow, Isaac was a mature young man. He was willing

to let his dad do that. And I don't see anything here in the

passage that we just read that Isaac would have said, like, no,

dad, you can't do that. I have a right. There's no way

I'm not going to allow you to do that. I have a right to

get married. And I want to take a freshly baked cookie to my son.

And you know, he could have said all kinds of things, but

he didn't. He just did this. He allowed his dad to tie his

hands and to lay him on that altar, and his dad got the knife.

I want somebody to tell me what Isaac's secret was. We read it

in the story. It says it twice. What is it? What he

was? What I am hard of hearing here? Was subject to his parent?

Doesn't say that twice? Okay? I think the secret is in the

passage that we read and it says it twice. What is it? Preacher

man, can you help us? Okay? I will then ask the best

looking lady in the room, Barbara, you tell him what it is.

What was Isaac's secret to allowing his dad tie his hands without running away and

getting out of there? He said, yes. It says twice that they

walked together. Young people, the importance of you walking with mom and dad.

It's so important if you have godly parents, if you have parents that

are concerned about your spiritual welfare, even if they have some things that they

require, some things of you that you don't think it's necessary. Walk with

your parents. Did you ever think your dad had too many rules? You

did? Well, you must be quite normal. What about you? Did

you ever think your dad had some rules that he just put in place just

kind of to make you maybe a little bit miserable. Yeah, exactly.

Parents tend to do that. But in spite of that, I encourage you

to walk with your parents, just like Isaac did. He walked with his

dad. He knew there was going to be danger because his dad had a

sharp knife, his dad had fire, and he knew what they were going

to do, but he walked with his dad. There's probably never gonna be

a time in your life when you're in as much of a spiritual danger as

what you are right now in your youth because of all the wicked things that

are out there, and the importance of walking with mom and dad is so

important. Walk with your parents. I work as a prison chaplain. Here's

some months ago. I go from cell to cell. Why do a lot

of different things in prison, but I go from cell to cell and I

visit with the inmates. I enjoy doing that, and I was walking along.

It was late in the afternoon. I was tired. I was ready

to go home. I was up on the third floor and I had just

started down the step to go down and then go home. Just started down

the step, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a

young man in the first cell, and I thought I should go back and

talk to that man. No, no, I'm tired. I'm going home.

But God did not allow me to go down that step. I turned

around and went back and introduced myself as a champlain of the prison and wondered

who he is, and he said, I'm Aaron Pierce. He was twenty

two years old. So we visited there for quite a while. And I

asked Eric about his family, and he said, I have a Christian family.

He said, I have a good family. We always went to church,

and my parents pray for me, and they put money on my books

so I can buy a few extra things in prison. And he went on

to say about his family. They come and visit him and they send letters.

And I said, Aaron, why are you behind these bars? Hey

said John. I thought my dad had too many rules. I thought my

dad was just being miserable by adding a few more rules. So when I

turned sixteen, I run away from home and I got in contact with some

other boys in the city, and after a few days we needed some money,

so we went and robbed the store, and of course we got caught.

And he said, now, he said, John, do you know

who is stupid? He said, I'm stupid because of not obeying and being

subject to my dad. I have to be in this cell that's eight feet

wide and twelve feet long, has a little bunk bed and a toilet stolen

back, and I have to be in here for eight years with a man

that I don't know because I was not willing to be subject to my dad.

Young people, be wise, walk with your parents for just a few

minutes of stupid things. A lot of those men in prison, we have

twenty five hundred in there are serving life sentence because a few minutes of stupid

choices. Don't do it. Be mature, walk with your parents already.

Let me see here. Open your bibles to Genesis chapter thirty nine. Genesis

chapter thirty nine, we have the story of y'all know the story of Joseph.

He was hated by his brothers because of that coat, and perhaps a

few other things as well, So they despised Joseph. Joseph was one of

Isaac's grandsons, if I have it right, so, I think it's so

with reason that we find in Joseph a man of integrity and maturity at a

very young age. The one thing that in my mind, that makes Joseph

so outstanding is the fact that his brothers were so cruel and so degrading,

and it just made the life of Joseph shine all the brighter by the side

of his brothers out of the abundance of the heart. The mouse speak of

Joseph's response to moral temptation is sure evidence of spiritual maturity. Many young men,

you know the story here, Many young men, if they had and

not just young men, older men as well, would fall flat on their

faces if they had the opportunity that Joseph had. Here. This young lady

caught him and she said, let's go and have sex. He refused.

He left his clothes in her hands, and he run away. He was

not willing. In fact, he said, how can I do this great

wickedness and sin before God? Something like that? Yes, how can I

do this great wickedness and sin against God. That's maturity. Joseph was willing

to deny himself. Should Joseph when this lady tempted him to have sex with

her? Should he have been struggling with masturbation? And this applies to both

sides, the girls as well as the boys. Said Joseph had been Should

he have been struggling along with masturbation when this woman tempted him? What do

you think Genesis thirty nine would tell us this morning? We'd have a complete

different story. Way too many young people take that first step down for a

few moments of pleasure towards the sins of immorality, and then have to suffer

with regret and remorse and shame for the rest of their lives. Don't do

it. God has given each of you, all of us. He has

given us a precious, priceless gift, and it's called virginity. You need

to guard that until the day that you were married. Don't ruin your life

for a few moments of pleasure beforehand. It's not worth the flame. You

will have to suffer remorse and shame and guild the rest of your life.

Be a Joseph, stand on your two feet. Do you, young men

know the difference between a man and a male? Not all males or men,

especially not in the society where we live today. May God help us

be mature? All right, Briefly, we've noticed a few things. I'd

like to bring out a couple practical Wow, I have like seven minutes yet,

I think I'm two thirds finished. But that's okay. How can I

are you as young people and as older folks? How can we gain and

then practice these same characteristics are traits of maturity today? I realize that we've

noticed a few things, but I'd like to especially take notices some scriptures and

make some personal applications. Turn with me to Psalms on Hun Psalms nineteen and

verse fifteen. Psalms one hundred and nineteen. It says in verse fifteen,

I will meditate in thy precepts. I will meditate in thy precepts. Any

serious minded youth with a proper self control and a sense of sobriety is never

out of date and always respected by spiritual people. Back in I think it

was an eighty nine I was asked to go to Paraguay for a week of

meetings. So we flew to Paraguay. We got to Sinceone, which is

a capital Paraguay, at midnight and there was a brother there to pick us

up and take us out to his home in Componuevi. He said it will

take us four hours. So we got there at four o'clock in morning,

drove up towards the house, and I noticed before I got out of the

vehicle, I noticed there was a flickering light on the inside in the living

room, and they did not have electricity back in those days. So we

got out of the vehicle and he welcomed us up on the porch. We

got up on the porch. He opened the door and he said, welcome

to our home. What do you think I saw when I got stepped inside

the living room? The verse that we are noticing is that I will meditate

in thy precepts. We stepped inside the door and right inside there in the

living room there was a little stand with a candle, and there was a

fourteen year old boy there reading his bible at four o'clock in the morning,

Garth, what do you do in the morning at four o'clock? Okay,

what do the girls do? What do you do at four o'clock in the

morning. Do you read your Bible. Well, I'm not saying that you

have to be reading your Bible at four o'clock in the morning. You probably

will when you're my age, but you get because you can't sleep. So

that's when old people read their bibles, is at three and four o'clock in

the morning, unless unless you're maybe like I am. You remember, I

have a hard time flowing down. So we have a we have a three

acre lot where we live. And I like to run and try and stay

healthy, and and so I get up in the morning when I can't sleep,

I get up early in the morning. Sometimes it's one thirty, sometimes

two o'clock. And anyhow, in our three acre lot, we built a

way all the way out around the edge. It's three side, it's all

around those three acres and that Yes, I love to run there. Come

to see us and we'll run together from two to four o'clock in the morning.

Yes, And then I have some weights. I think some of you

remember when you were down at the Mexico border. I had some weights there.

I have a twenty five pounder and just in case girls, I have

a ten pounder. I have a twenty five pounder. I have a thirty

five pounder, have a seventy pounder, and just recently about one hundred pounder.

Yeah, and picked us up him one hand and put him above your

head. Yes, Okay, here was this young man. He was fourteen

years old, and he was reading God's word at four o'clock in the morning.

Any serious minded youth with a proper self control and sense of sobriety is

never out of date and always respected by spiritual pete bol. What does meditating

in the Word of God do for us? I will meditate in thy precepts

and have respect unto thy ways. What I saw in that young man in

the ten twelve days that we were there was a lot of maturity at the

age of fourteen. Where did he get it? He got it from the

word of God. He meditated in the precepts of God's word. So important

that we do that. Do your girls like to read? Does your mom

or dad come home sometimes they have a new book, maybe one from Pablo.

How many of you read Pablo's books? Okay? Are they interesting?

You know? I never read any of those books. You know, I

grew up with Pablo. I know all the stories Okay. So you have

a book here and uh from Pablo, and you know how the writers are.

You know, they go to explaining some things. They come to the

end of the chapter and they almost say something, but they don't. And

you have a curfew. You're supposed to have your light out at ten thirty

in the morning, in the evening, at ten thirty in the evening.

So you're reading this book and you're at chapter fifteen and there's like, I

don't know, twenty chapters and you come to the end of this chapter he

almost say that you want to know what what The next chapter talks about her

what this thing is? And you look at the Oh, no, I'm

supposed to have my lights off, but I'm sure a moment, I'm sure

they are. So you go on and you read the next chapter. Wow,

that was exciting. But you come to end of the chapter again it's

the same thing. So you go on reading that book, and then because

of all the excitement and the stories that were in there, you couldn't sleep

for the next forty five minutes. Okay, the next evening you go to

bed like usual. You know you're supposed to read your Bible. You know

you're supposed to meditate in the precepts of God's Word. So you get your

Bible, you sit there beside the bed. Then you get your Bible.

You go to Romans twelve and you start reading. You read verse one,

and then verse two, and then hmm wow. You shake your head and

you go on down to verse three and four, and before you know it,

you fall asleep right there in your bed. You get awake the next

morning. Oh, you slept on your Bible. Your pages are all oh

no, Now, what's the difference when you read a book from Pablo or

when you read your Bible? Can you tell me? Yes? So you're

saying the Bible's not freely. Yeah, we're all quite normal. We we're

pretty human, okay. But I encourage you to meditate in the precepts of

God's Word. It's there that we find that you will find the necessary essential

to grow and mature in your Christian life and experience. Don't be afraid to

carry your Bible with you. I keep a Bible in my pick up wherever

I go. Carry a New Testament in your hip pockets. Yes, And

if you have somebody where you work it preached to him. I mean you

don't talk to him about God. Are you? Are you a believer?

And you know I was really blessed by reading last evening this verse. Share

it with them, meditating the precepts of God's word, and then share it

as you go along. Very important to do that. Psalms are hundred nineteen

thirty two. Le me see Psalms one, nineteen thirty two. I will

run the way of Thy commandments. I will run the way of Thy commandments.

Youth is a time of ambition. I remember that time of feeling,

that ambition, feelings and high. The desire to excel is strong, and

to go above and beyond where Mom and Dad were. When you're at that

point in life, be careful. I remember when I was at that point.

I dreamed, I planned, I discussed my deals. The feelings run

high. That feeling, you know, to get started in life and and

go above and beyond the reverses of my appearance was a sure part of me.

Seeking to excel is not wrong. But run the way of the commandments

of the Lord. I will run the way of Thy commandments. It's so

important. If I would have done that early in life, I would be

minus men scar running the way of the commandments of the Lloyd. I remember

I was ten years old. My parents weren't Christians. At that point,

I didn't think of it so much. I had a nice childhood, But

as I got older, I noticed a few things were it didn't seem right.

Daddy could smoke cigarettes and there was beer in the refrigerator, but we

had to go to a church. We had to wear black cats, and

we had to wear pants that we had to do a lot of things.

But then it was okay for Dad to smoke cigarette and to use bad words

during the week. I was at the age of ten. One day,

my fifteen year old brother came home from the school and he said, Mom,

he said, I'm swallowing up right here and it hurts. Mom looked

at it and she said, it's probably mumps. Do you know what mumps

is? She said, it'll probably be okay till tomorrow morning. You'll have

it on the other side and then it'll go away. But it persisted.

It just kept on. So a couple of days later, a mom and

dad took my brother, fifteen year old brother, and he took him to

the doctor, and when they came home later on in the afternoon, they

said he has leukemia cancer, and he went downhill really fast. It was

now a Sunday morning, and we were all sitting in the living room and

we expected my brother would he would bleed out of his nose. His blood

would just run out of his nose and it couldn't be stopped. So we

all stayed at home. We're sitting in the living room. My brother was

laying on a cot and he did die later on that evening. We were

sitting there, and soon after lunch, I noticed I looked out the window

and I noticed I was ten years old. I noticed two vehicles come driving

into our lane, and they stopped out close by the house, and a

young man got out of the vehicle and came in and he knocked on the

door. Dad got up and went over and they talked, and then the

man turned around and went back, came and sat down. I was watching

this young man. He went out to the car and he talked to the

people that were in the vehicles. And a little bit later, all those

doors opened and was a group of fifteen young people came out of those cars,

and they had bibles and songbooks, and they came into our house.

Dad went and he opened a door and they came into the living room,

and they stood over here on this side at the living room, and they

sang some songs for us. They knew why they were doing that. They

sang some songs. And then after they had sung a number of songs,

one of the young men got up and he had a Bible, and he

read from the Bible. I was sitting there listening to him. I don't

remember where he read. I don't know what he read. I don't know

who those young people were. But a phrase that he said in his devotional

was leaning on the arms of Jesus. That stuck in my head as a

ten year old boy. Over the next number of years, I discovered a

Bible story book upstairs where I slept, and I started reading the Bible story

books. And I found the Bible and I started reading in Genesis, and

I made some notes of what I was reading. And over the years,

when I turned sixteen, I started working in a trader factory and I met

two young men there that were Christians, and we had some real good conversations.

They were real blessing to me, and I learned a lot. I

was not a Christian at that point, but I learned a lot, and

then I would observe some things that were going on at home, and it

just it was a burden to me. So a couple of years later,

I was eighteen years old and I was coming home late at night with my

horse and buggy. I had gone for the weekend to visit with some of

my friends, and I was coming home late at night on a Sunday night

with horse and buggy, and I fell asleep. That had happened before as

well, but the horse knew where to go, and I would usually get

awake when he would stop at our barn. But we were traveling along,

and because I was sleeping and all once, something awoke me kind of scared

me, and I tried to wear my at what's going Oh? And I

saw a light coming, a bright light and a loud horn, and I

looked and I saw and I'm going to have to stay awake. If not,

there's going to be a tragic accident. There was a train coming.

But I fell sleep again, and just a minute or so leader I had

just gone across the track when the buggy shook because of the wind from the

train that had just gone behind me. After I had gone across the track,

and at that moment, this was eight years after that group of young

people was there. At that moment when I got awake, I thought of

leaning on the arms of Jesus, and I was converted. Young people,

be mature, run away of the commandments of God. I have nothing against

you playing volleyball, or young people do as well. But don't just play

volleyball. Go visit older people in the hospital. Go visit sick people in

the hospital. Go saying at a nursing home and girl in the fall of

the year. If you don't, if an old lady, go wake her

lawn and then sing some songs for her and pray for her. Who knows,

maybe eight years later, because if you're testimony, she will become a

be mature. Hadn't it been for those that group of young people that came

to our house back in sixty one, I would not be here tonight.

Run the ways of the commandments of the Lord. Be mature, being grown

up out of the abundance of the heart. The mouse speaketh. There's more

that could be said. My time is a fact. I went over time

again. Shall we pray our father Heaven, You've been so good to us.

Thank you for each one of these young people. Bless them in a

very special way. Thank you for the encouragement they have been to me in

the last couple of days. Continue to bless them and give them direction as

they walk with Mom and Dad. Help them that they can continue to mature

and grow in their chrystiallizing experience and grow in favor with God and man.

Am I to people in the communities where they live, be able to see

that Jesus lives within their hearts. We want to commit ourselves to you.

We pray in Jesus name.