Bobby Bosler: You could please turn with me to the book of Philippians chapter 3, please. Philippians chapter 3. I want to ask a question here.

This is kind of a weird question to ask. But how many of you here have heard me on the podcast before you ever saw me in person? How many of you are like that?

Okay, there’s quite a few over here, maybe a few over here. Weird question. Do I look like what I sound like?

No? You had something different in mind? I’ve had that happen before where, you know, maybe there’s somebody that I’m listening to on the internet or whatever, and you kind of develop a mental picture of them in your mind, and then when you see a picture, you’re like, that is totally not what I expected.

So I won’t ask you what you were expecting. I don’t want you to give you that opportunity to insult me there. But, no, I’m very excited about this week and shared a little bit of my heart last night.

Frankly, young people, I just want to say this. The battle is raging in our world right now. And I’m sure that’s nothing that you were not aware of.

If you turn on the news for any length of time, you will see nothing but fighting. You’ll see nothing but bickering. You’ll see nothing but what you could call the polarization of a nation.

You know what I mean by that? The polarization of a nation. It’s like everybody picks sides.

And it’s like either you’re for Biden or you hate his guts, right? Or either you’re for this party or you hate that party’s guts. You know what I’m talking about.

We live in a divided world right now. And it seems like on almost every single issue that you can imagine, It’s not just that good people disagree. On so many issues today, it’s either you’re totally for it or you’re totally against it. And when I think about that matter of polarization and how so many people are taking sides,

I think that’s kind of like the battle, the spiritual battle that you and I are in. You know, young people, I just want you to think about this. Just like in politics, just like in the social issues of our day, kind of culture is somewhat forcing you to take sides so it also is in the spiritual realm.

Can I say this young people? I recognize that you’re all here because your desire is to side with Jesus Christ. Am I right?

Is that your desire? I would say all of us if we were to say pick a side are you going to side with Jesus or are you going to side with the devil? I think all of us here in this room, I would imagine would probably say, dude, man, I’m siding with Jesus.

That’d be dumb to side with the devil. I read the end of the story. I know he loses. I don’t want to be on the

losing team. If I was to ask you all here today, man, which one would you side with? If you had to pick sides, would you side with God or with the world? I think most of us, if we had to be forced to make a choice between either being all the way on God’s side or all the way on the world’s side, I think that

most of us, at least the desire of our heart would be, we want to be on God’s side. Are we in agreement here? I would imagine that that’s where most of us are at.

But did you know something, young people? Sometimes just because you say you’re on one side doesn’t mean you look like it. It doesn’t mean you act like it.

You know, I want to pose a question to you here this afternoon. I’m question is not a question of aspiration. This is not a question of what you want to be true. I want

us to really delve into this and take a look at this question. I want us to assess a little bit in our own hearts, which side are you on? If I could put it this way, whose side are you on? I asked

you to turn with me to the book of Philippians in chapter number three. We’re going to look near the end of the chapter here at a series of verses. I’m going to read the verses. I’m going to say a few

points of explanation, then we’ll dive into our message here this afternoon. In Philippians chapter 3, and if you look down at verse number 17 here, the apostle Paul is writing to a group of people that you could say were his biggest fans. And he says this to them, brethren, be followers together of me.

Now, before I go on, let me just explain something here. When he says be followers together of me. He’s not so much talking about, you know, follow the leader. He’s not so much saying, you

know, hey, listen, when I go to a certain city, you all follow me like a bunch of groupies. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s not saying figure out my itinerary and follow along behind me. What he’s

saying is the idea of that word follow is the idea of imitate. In other words, you not only just need to observe how I do things. In fact, I don’t have time to develop it, but if you read through chapter three and really chapter two and chapter one really the whole letter up until this point he has been sharing his perspective on the crises of his life for those of you that followed the

youtube series that i did on the book of philippians you’ll remember we can advance through crisis if we’ll have the right mentality a mentality that’s not so much focused on what we can’t do but it’s focused on what god can do it’s a mentality that it’s not about oneself it’s about the savior and I’m not going to go into all of that, but throughout chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Philippians,

Paul is sharing his perspective on life and ministry. He’s opening up his heart and saying, here’s how I tick. And so when we get to close to the end here, he says, listen, I’ve talked to you.

I’ve shared with you. You’ve personally observed how I live, how I operate. You’ve seen my priority system and how I make decisions with your own very eyes.

And he says, I want you to do what I do. I want you to set my priorities as yours. I want you to imitate my pattern of life. And he goes on and he says this in verse 17, be followers together of me and mark them which walk

so as you have us for an example. See, what in the world is he talking about there in that phrase? Essentially what he’s saying is this, is he says, okay, don’t just follow me.

He says, I want you to look around. I want you to note everybody in your peer group. I want you to note everybody in your school.

I want you to note everybody in your church. And I want you to figure out who in your church, who in your school, who in your peer group is imitating me. In other words, he says, Mark, those who walk so, walk like this.

Like what? like Paul walks, like Paul thinks. One of the themes of the book of Philippians is he wants the Philippians to think identically with one another. In fact, in chapter one, near the end of the chapter, he says, only I would that you live as, that your conversation should be as it

becometh the gospel of Christ. In other words, we’re supposed to live our lives to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You’ve heard me say that before, haven’t you?

Let me just say this as we get down to the end here. He says, all right, listen, Philippians. Listen, Philippians, what I want you to do is I want you to live like I live.

I want you to walk like I walk. I want you to figure out who in the sphere of your influence lives like me and walks like me. And I want you to live like them and walk like them.

Again, he’s saying he wants all of us to be in lockstep together. But at the end of that verse there, he says, in the end of verse 17, as ye have us for an example, and an ensample is the word there. Did you know that it’s really, really important to have your eyes on a good example in your life?

Did you know that’s really important? You know, it’s one thing to read theory in the Word of God. It’s good.

You ought to read the Word of God. It’s one thing to see how God wants us to live theorized in black and white ink on the page. Let me tell you, it’s absolutely essential to see it in the Word of God.

But I don’t know about you, something that’s really helpful to me is to see it lived out before my eyes. You know what I’m saying? There are a number of people in my life that when I think of an example, someone who has the priorities of someone like the Apostle Paul or who has the lifestyle of Jesus, I can think of a number of people in my life that I can look to.

And I can count on the fact that if I look at how they’re living and how they’re thinking, I’m going to see lived out before me what the Bible wants for me to live out myself. Again, my pastor is one such person. Every time I talk to him, it just, it challenges me, his patience with people.

I’m not a very patient person, okay? That’s just not me. I need to be.

And when I’m filled with the spirit, I am. But man, I look at pastor and all the things he has to deal with and all of the dumb things that people do that he’s got to deal with the consequences and the fallout. I’m thinking, man, how in the world can you be so patient?

You know what I’m seeing? I’m seeing the patience of Jesus lived out before my very eyes. And it’s one thing to read in the Bible that we ought to be patient in long-suffering.

It’s another thing to see someone be long-suffering in front of me. Are you following me? Examples are important.

You need an example in your life that you can look to. And what Paul is saying is, hey, listen, you’ve heard my testimony. You’ve seen my example.

And I want you to find more examples. And I want you to follow those examples. Imitate those examples because that’s going to be a help to your walk with Christ.

Why is that so important? In fact, why is it so important for us to find people that we can look to who can exemplify the walk before our very eyes? Well, the Apostle Paul tells us why it’s so important in the next verse.

Verse number 18, he says this. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. You know, young people, one of the reasons why it’s so important for you to have a godly example, for you to follow the right people is because if you follow the wrong people, you might just end up following the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Remember how I said earlier, our world is a polarized world these days, right? Our world almost forces you to choose sides. And that polarizing influence comes through the examples that you look at and that you look to in your life.

You know, young people, it’s like this. Who you follow determines your future. Do you hear that?

Who you follow determines your future. We live in an age of social media today, and it’s so easy just to click a button and to be following somebody, whether it’s on Twitter, whether it’s on Facebook, or some other social media, whether it’s in WhatsApp. And did you know that it’s important who you follow? Because if you follow the right set of people, they can set an example that can give you

a living illustration of what it looks like to live for God and to turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ. But on the flip side, there are so many examples out there that with a click of a button, you can begin following. And they will not only exemplify for you what it looks like to live for the devil, to live for the world, to live for oneself.

But here’s the thing, just like the right example can affect your life and change your behavior in the same way the wrong example can too. Young people, I want you to know some of you have role models in your life that you ought not have. Some of you have people that you follow, whether it be on Twitter, whether it be on YouTube, whether it be on some other settings,

that frankly are not good examples of what it means to be totally surrendered to God and totally dependent on his power to turn the world upside down with the gospel. Listen, if you’re here, and if you buy into this Thee Generation stuff at all, the aspiration of your heart is, I want to be surrendered to God. I want to do what he wants me to do.

I want to follow him to the ends of the earth. I want to do what he wants me to do, to say what he wants me to say, to be what he wants me to be. I won’t ask for a raise of hands, but if I did, I would imagine half, if not three quarters or more of this room would say, dude, preacher, that’s what I want.

That’s what I need. That’s the direction I want to head. Remember, I’m asking you this question, whose side are you on?

And I qualify that question with this statement. I’m not asking you which side you want to be on. I’m asking which side are you on?

How do you know which side you’re on? Well, you know, as we continue reading here in this passage, we see some helpful earmarks that show us what enemies of the cross of Christ look like. What I want to do is I want to walk through some of these illustrations, if you will. And I want you to look at this because, listen,

don’t forget this and don’t miss this. One’s lifestyle reveals one’s loyalties. How you live reveals who you are for. And just as much as that is the case in your life, that is also the case in the lives of others,

those that you could follow. And so understand your lifestyle reveals your loyalties. And if you, as you’re observing people or as you’re just reflecting on your own life, if your lifestyle matches up with what Paul said is the lifestyle of an enemy of the cross of Christ. I don’t know about you, I’d be saying, listen, I may want to be on Jesus’ side,

but I sure don’t look like it. You follow me? Again, I’m kind of going at two different applications here, so just bear with me. On the one hand, you ought not be following people who are exhibiting the lifestyle

of an enemy of the cross of Christ. You get that point? We’re going to be applying it that way. But also, if you yourself are exhibiting habits and earmarks of an enemy of the cross of christ if i were you i would do my very best to do some business and stop looking like or sounding like or acting like or thinking like

an enemy of the cross of christ um let’s let’s look at the earmarks here of an enemy of the cross of christ look down in verse 18 he says for many walk of whom i’ve told you often and i’ll tell you weeping, weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And in verse 19, we got four phrases that show us what an enemy of the cross of Christ looks like.

First earmark here, the first sign here is he says this, whose end is destruction. Whose end is destruction. You know what an enemy of the cross of Christ, this one’s kind of a no-duh point here, but you know what one earmark is of an enemy of the cross of Christ.

It’s somebody who’s lost. Somebody who’s not saved, who’s hell bound, who is not forgiven. And I want to just say this, young people, there may be some here in this room.

You may have come to the V-Generation Youth Summit because it sounded like a lot of fun. And maybe you’re here today and maybe you’ve never quite heard in depth the gospel and how a person can have their sins forgiven and know for sure they’re on their way to heaven. Let me just say this young person, if you’re here today, and if I was to ask you if you were to die today, tomorrow,

or five years from now, do you know 100% for sure you’d go to heaven? Listen, there may be some here in this room that would say, well, I sure hope so. I mean, I want to go to heaven, but you could not say with 100% certainty that you are on your way to heaven. Listen, friends, if I were you, I would

get that matter settled here today, because an enemy of the cross of Christ is somebody who is not saved. Maybe you’re here today and you’d say, you know what, preacher? I understand that some people die and go to hell.

I just don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think it’s fair that a loving God could send people to hell. Well, then, friend, you don’t know my God because the Bible says that he’s a God of truth and without iniquity.

Just and right is he. God is a God of justice. And because God is a God of justice, God does not play fast and loose with right and wrong. If you’re here today and you’ve

God’s law. God says thou shall not lie. You tell a little lie to get yourself out of trouble with mom and dad.

Friends, mark it down and underline it in red. You’ve broken God’s law. You’ve committed crimes against God. You are a criminal in God’s eyes, no matter how white of a lie you might think

that it might be. God says thou shalt not commit adultery. And did you know that Jesus clarified that commandment in Matthew chapter 5? And he said, whosoever you’ve heard it said by them of Old time thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that if a man look on a woman to lust

after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And friends, let me tell you this. You’ve broken God’s law in that area.

You look at dirty magazines. You look up garbage on the internet and feast your eyes on the flesh that you find there. Understand this, young person.

and you’ve broken God’s law. Now, frankly, everybody here in this room, including those that are saved, have broken God’s law there, but there is one difference between those who have broken God’s law and are on their way to hell and those who have broken God’s law and are on their way to heaven. It’s called forgiveness.

It’s forgiveness. God paid for man’s sins through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago. 2,000 years ago, Jesus came to this planet loved you.

He saw ahead in the corridor of time, every last one of you. He saw that because of your sin, you were condemned by God. You would be thrown into hell for all of eternity, and God would have been just in doing so.

And God loved you so much. He came to earth as a man. He let himself be taken by his own creation and nailed to a cross.

He let his blood be shed. He let his life be taken from him as he hung on that cross. God, his father, laid all of your sins out on his son and Jesus became guilty of your sins. He got your punishment and he

died. He paid the price for your forgiveness. And the difference of those here in this room that are lost and on their way to hell and those that are on their way to heaven is this. Some have taken advantage

of the blood of Jesus Christ. Some have come to Jesus and have done what the Bible has said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. They’re not depending on their own works.

They’re not depending on their own church attendance. They’re not depending on their own performance whatsoever to get them to heaven. They have stopped, in fact, relying on their own things and their own abilities and their own attainments. And instead, they have

chosen to put all their eggs in one basket, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Those here in this room that have made the decision to stop trusting your good works and to trust the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, those of you here in this room who have done that are born again. Your sins are forgiven. You’re on your way to heaven no matter how you may feel about it

when sin is preached on. But those of you that are here in this room, if you’re depending on your baptism, let me tell you this, friend, you’re still lost and on your way to hell. If you’re here today and you’re depending on the fact that you ride the bus to church and that you go to church every now and then and you think that’s got to get you in with the big man upstairs,

friends, you’re not depending on Jesus alone. And if you die like that, you’ll die and go to hell. If you’re here and you think, man, if I just improve my life, if I just try to do better, if I just try to, you know, stop lying and stop stealing and stop looking at dirty things on the Internet, then God will let me into heaven. Friends, you’ve not yet chosen the forgiveness of sins

bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. You’ve not yet come to him by faith. Listen, I’m just saying this here today. I recognize most, if not all of you here this afternoon

are probably saved and on your way to heaven. But as I was looking at this passage, as I was looking through this text here, I just could not get away from the fact that there may be some here in this room who just don’t know. They just don’t know.

They hope they’re going to heaven, but they’re not. And friends, let me say this. If you are not on your way to heaven, I say this as kindly as I know how, you’re on the wrong side.

You’re on the wrong team. You’re enlisted in the wrong army. The Bible says that you’re of your father the devil and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning

and abode not in the truth. And I just want to say this, friend, you may want to be on God’s team. The only way to get on God’s team is to come to Jesus and trust him alone to wash your sins away and to give you everlasting life. Now, that being said, there is another earmark here regarding this

that I want to focus on. You know, we’re talking about not following the enemies of the cross. not adopting an enemy of the cross as your role model because they’re going to hurt your walk with god think about this do you have role models that are lost people you know i would imagine many do and i’m not saying that lost people can’t do some things

well and i’m not saying that there aren’t some things that you could learn from somebody who is not saved. When it comes to this matter of the direction and drive of your life, when it comes to this whole matter of, man, I want to be like so-and-so. I want to do what so-and-so does.

I want to imitate so-and-so. It better not be Mr. Beast, friend. It better not be some of these high-profile YouTube individuals that are hell-bound and on their way to heaven say brother bosler are you preaching against youtube some of it there’s a really good channel i know of though it’s called Thee Generation you ought to check it out sometime shameless plug right but listen i understand there are some folks out there they got really

entertaining stuff i know listen limit can i just give you one lip just one little tip here you say preacher that would greatly diminish the amount of things and channels that i watch on youtube yeah maybe that would actually give you more time to walk with God and go out soul winning and do something that God wants you to do. I don’t know. But I’m just saying this here. Again, I just want to go back

to the text here. Paul says, I want you to imitate me because there are enemies of the cross of Christ out there and it’s important who you follow because who you follow will determine your future. Listen, there may be some here, man, you’re totally addicted to Twitch. you just get on there and you want to watch all these people that are playing video games

you’re not even playing the video game you’re just watching people play video games that’s like a double waste of time and listen i’ve heard of young men their entire life dream their whole goal for their life is they want to get out of the home they want to move to some place where mom and dad won’t interfere with them and they want to start a twitch channel so they can play video games

record them and upload them to Twitch to waste thousands of people’s time on the internet. Boy, that’s not just a bad waste of your time. That’s a bad waste of a lot of other people’s time.

You know what I’m saying? And listen, you follow people with enough gusto. You’re going to emulate them in some way.

You’re going to emulate them. Listen, there’s a lot of great stuff out there. There’s a lot of entertaining stuff.

And there’s stuff that’s genuinely harmless. There’s stuff that’s genuinely not wrong. It may be a time waster, but as far as the content, it is not sinful.

But do please consider. Are they your role model? You know, I bring up these names here.

Rhett and Link. How many of you know who they are? Rhett and Link.

Good Mythical Morning. You may have heard of them. Those are a group of people that I think a lot of people followed for a long time.

They’re pretty entertaining. They do funny things, you know, gross stuff on YouTube. And again, all kinds of interesting things.

But you know, a couple years ago, they came out with this series. They called it Their Deconstruction Journey. It was very interesting to me. These people, they were online, immensely popular, regular, were on the trending page of YouTube,

and they claimed to be born-again Christians. It’s interesting. By the way, just because somebody claims to be a born-again Christian doesn’t mean they are.

Rhett and Link on this YouTube channel, they came out one day, and I watched the one from Rhett cover to cover, start to finish there, because this guy was an influencer among young people. And I wanted to know what he had to say regarding the deconstruction of his faith. And I won’t go into all the details, but I will say this.

He started off by doubting the Word of God. He doubted the Genesis 1 was really, literally what it purported itself to be. And that was the first domino that began to fall. And in his mind, in whatever this worldview that he had,

one domino went down after another domino. And by the end of that hour-long discussion, he said, you know what? I don’t want to believe that God exists.

I don’t even want to believe. If that’s the kind of God that exists, I don’t even want him to be real. Can I just say this?

I hit unsubscribe. And you know, there may be some YouTube channels, some Twitter accounts. I don’t know what y’all are on.

Oh, TikTok. Oh, don’t even get me started here. Do you really think that it is pleasing to the Lord to watch people shake their backside to worldly songs on TikTok?

I understand it can be used for more than that. I understand. But do you really think it’s godly to be following these people?

You say, but there’s some pretty funny people out there. Listen. are they lost listen i’m not saying you can’t see a video every now and then and i’m not saying that you need to filter your entire youtube and only watch christian channels or christian videos that’s not what i’m saying but listen i know how it is it’s easy to get sucked into youtube and see it’s easy to look

forward to that next new video you know what i’m talking about probably more than the fba kids here all right? It’s so easy to get a notification on your phone, oh, there’s a new video out on such and such a channel, and I just go back to it, and I just go back to it, and you just go back, and you know, before you know it, you’ve literally looked down your YouTube feed, and every last one

of them has that full red bar across the bottom of the thumbnail. You know what I’m talking about? I just want to ask you a question.

How much of the content that you consumed was by lost people? Listen, all I’m saying is this. Who you follow determines your future. And this verse right here says that there are folks that are enemies of the cross of Christ

and their end is destruction. Paul says, I got better examples for you to follow than them. Better examples for you to follow.

Let’s look at the next phrase here. He says, for many, verse 19, whose end is destruction, second earmark of an enemy of the cross of Christ. He says, whose God is their belly.

whose God is their belly. That’s a strange God to have, isn’t it? I don’t know about you, I’m trying to decrease that one in my life currently.

I’m on the keto diet. I’ve lost 10 pounds in the last three weeks. Pretty excited about that. But, you know, the fact of the matter is,

what is he talking about here? Is he literally talking about people that bow down to their own bellies? I don’t even think that’s physiologically possible, to bow down to your own belly.

That’s not what he’s talking about. But what he’s talking about is this. He’s saying, listen, there are some people, these are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

They let their own desires and passions rule them. You know, I think you all know what it’s like when you’re really hungry. You know what I’m saying?

It can really change the way you think, can it? It can really affect your behavior. Y’all ever heard of the term hangry? you know what i’m talking about when you’re so hungry that it just kind of makes you a little hangry any of you get that way every once in a while okay wow okay i better we better make sure

we feed these folks well here we don’t want them getting hangry okay listen it’s like this there are some folks just like when in fact uh i couldn’t have the breakfast this morning just because of the diet that i’m on and so uh it was around 12 o’clock maybe about 12 15 i was talking to some

folks in the hallway and i was like you know what i better go eat because it’s 12 15 and i haven’t eaten since dinner last night and i was just it was kind of it caused me to end a conversation that i probably wouldn’t have ended otherwise and you know your passions can at times rule your decisions and an enemy of the cross of christ is someone who allows their passions and their feelings

and their desires to replace the Lord of the universe. It’s like this. You know what ought to determine your priorities?

You know what ought to determine your lifestyle and your decisions? The God of the universe. God. Yet how often do young people or people, anybody for that matter,

how often do they just do what they feel like doing? You know, this impulsiveness is an earmark of an enemy of the cross of Christ. And I’m just saying this here.

There may be some people that you can think of. These people, they don’t even think about whether it’s good to do. They don’t even think about whether it’s wise.

They don’t think about whether it’s godly. If they feel like it, they just do it. Those are not the kinds of people that we ought to be idolizing.

You know, again, you can probably think back to your youth group. Maybe there are some here that are like that. again if you think it you do it let me just share a little bit of my testimony when i was a teenager i was a very impulsive person um i just kind of did the first things that came to my mind this was

back during my dark years from 12 to 16 my mom passed away when i was 12 that caused me to spiral downward into the gall of bitterness i was mad at god for ruining my family i was mad at the world for the fact that my life wasn’t as good as everybody else’s, or so I thought. And those years were years of darkness. I would literally stay up until 3 a.m.

in the morning just about every night just to play my video games. And you know what I felt like doing every day? I felt like playing my games.

And so you know what I did every day? I played my games. In fact, when I was supposed to be doing my school, at that time in my life, I was not in a school.

I was schooled at home. And so at that time, if I felt like leaving my video running in one room and going into the other room where the computer was and playing a video game, guess what? I did it.

I did it. If I felt like swearing and taking God’s name in vain or some other terrible word, I did it. If I felt like I wanted to get online and get a thrill from looking at garbage on the internet, I did it.

It was like there was no filter in my life. oh yeah, sure, I didn’t feel like getting in trouble. So I did everything I could to satisfy my desires without getting in trouble.

Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about there. I knew how to clear the history. I knew more about the computer than my dad did. I knew how to make it just so, so that I could get onto the internet, do what I wanted to do, erase my tracks,

and go on my merry way like nothing had happened. I knew how to hide my sin. I knew how at that time in homeschooling, I knew how to cheat. You see, the way to cheat in homeschooling is not to put all the right answers down from the answer book in mom’s cabinet

or in dad’s cabinet where the answer keys are. The key in my case was to get the answer key, get most of them right, but just a few of them wrong. That’s what I did to keep people off of my case. I was a cheater, man,

because I felt like doing something other than study. You know, there was a point in time we used for one year, switched on Schoolhouse, which was like a digital school thing. Didn’t work too well.

But in fact, I found a bug in the software. I found a bug in the software. I was in the software there, and I realized that if you go through a lesson and if you skipped every exercise and every question, when you finished it, when you hit the last button, it showed that you had 100%. And so every day I would get on Algebra 2,

Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, finish 100%. What do you know? And I go and do my games or whatever. Well, there came a point in time,

my dad got remarried when I was 16. It was shortly after, around that time, my mom kind of started to put her oar into my life a little bit. And she decided to look into one of my lessons.

And she saw, wait a minute, there’s no answer. Wait a minute, there’s no answer. Wait a minute, there’s no answer here. And she looked through, I was literally halfway through the school year

and I’d done that for every single class. I got in trouble just a little bit. And I had to go back through and I had to do it all again.

But you know what? It’s amazing how when we let our desires rule us, how creative we can get to fulfill our curiosity, to fulfill our dreams, our desires. Let me tell you this.

When your God is your desires, it always leads to bad things. Always, every single time. Listen, some of you, you never get out of bed when your alarm goes off because your desires are ruling the show. Some of you just can’t seem to eat a reasonable portion of food

because you’re letting your desires run the show. Listen, some of you here in this room, you just don’t want to go to bed at a reasonable hour because your desires are ruling the show. Just one more video, just one more level.

just one more lesson and I’ll get it done. And listen, friends, I want you to know if you let your desires rule the show, you’re living like an enemy of the cross of Jesus Christ. Listen, I would personally assess your peer group and ask yourself the question, are these people that just go with what they feel like or are these people who are principled? Are these people who want to serve God

and say no to their flesh now and then? Because those are the kind of people that you ought to follow. People who don’t say yes to their flesh every time. Listen, don’t side with the lost when it comes to this matter of whose side you’re on

and who you follow. Don’t side with the idolatrous. Don’t be a slave to your own desires and don’t follow people who are as well.

Here’s another phrase here. He says this. He says, whose glory is in their shame.

That’s kind of an interesting phrase there. What does that mean? Well, simply this, these individuals, these enemies of the cross, they glory, they revel in shameful things.

I remember years ago, I had a friend down the street. Again, I was an only child, which meant I had no siblings to be my friends. Maybe your siblings aren’t your friends.

I have four kids now, which is kind of a new experience. Because I didn’t grow up with siblings. I didn’t understand the whole sibling rivalry thing, how they fight over a thing, that intense sense of fairness.

I just got everything. I thought that was fair as an only child. And so it just kind of drives me nuts sometimes.

You know, like, well, he got two and I only got one. I’m like, life stinks and then you die. Deal with it, kid. Thankfully, my wife has a much better sense of justice than I do,

and she knows what it’s like to be a sibling. Where was I going with that? Oh, that’s right.

I looked outside of the house for friends. And boy, I made some pretty bad choices in friends. There’s a kid down the street.

His name was Vincent. Lost as the day is long. I didn’t care.

He was a fun friend to have. In his backyard, he had all kinds of shrubbery and trees and just different things like that. And we built forts in his backyard.

In fact, there was another kid who literally was right next door to me. His name was Josh and Vince. And Josh, they were lost.

They were worldly. They had foul mouths. Pretty much every four-letter word I learned from those two guys.

And Vince and Josh, they both would talk about shameful things all the time. Frankly, at the beginning, I was pretty innocent. I didn’t know half of what they were talking about, but I still remember one day, Josh and Vince brought me down into Josh’s basement, and they said, hey, check out this. They opened up a magazine,

And I’d never seen the things that they showed me in that magazine. And thankfully, at that moment in my life, I was innocent enough, literally, this is going to sound funny and it’s okay to laugh at this, I screamed and ran out of the basement. Honestly, that was the right choice.

But you know what? I kept following them. I kept looking to them.

I kept listening to them. I kept hanging around with them. Eventually, that kind of a thing didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. eventually dirty jokes and stuff that i didn’t get before because i was naive oh i could cut the jokes with the best of them um we would talk about all kinds of shameful things back there in that fort

in vince’s backyard and frankly during those dark periods of my life in fact i oh man i regret those years so much for so many different reasons not only because of how it soiled me in my life but it was actually I became friends with this kid during probably the darkest years of my mom’s sickness before she died, and I spent days and days’ worth of time in his backyard in our stupid little fort

when I could have been spending time with my dying mother. And the things we talked about, I literally wish that I could go back and erase those thought patterns. I’m thankful that the word of God can cleanse my mind, and it has.

And I’m so thankful for that young person. Your mind may be an absolute cesspool, a sewage dump. Your mind might be just full of garbage, and it feels like whenever somebody says something, the dirty take on it is like the first thing that you think of.

Listen, I’ve preached to crowds of kids like that before. You know, you get up there and you say something, and you kind of realize, okay, there could be a double entendre. Dr.

Jim probably knows what I’m talking about. And you kind of say something and you know, half the kids just crack up because they thought of a dirty way to turn it. Listen, you may find yourself like that. Let me tell you, there’s hope

because God can cleanse your mind. He can change your heart. He can take those inclinations and those first thoughts and literally expunge them from your mind. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way

by taking he thereto according to his word? listen young people here’s the thing though you keep following people that glory in shameful things you’ll never get that stuff out of your head because all you’re doing is feeding it all you’re doing is feeding it you know um probably right around the time when my mom died uh vince his family moved to some other part of town probably one of the best things that ever

happened to me however there were some kids at church they were saved they were on their way to heaven I remember literally the day I think a day or two after my mom died my dad was really grieving was really grappling with things and so he let me stay over this other family’s house just to give him some space to grieve I mean whether it was right or wrong or not again I don’t remember all

the specific details because I was kind of in a little bit of a fog at that time in my life. But I just had this one mental image in mind. I remember we were up in the upstairs attic, which was converted into the boys’ room of this family’s house. And we were playing a snowboarding

video game on a Nintendo 64 that may date me. And I remember they said something to me like, like, it was actually very kind. They were like, hey, dude, really sorry about your mom.

And I remember I didn’t even look at them. I just continued to stare at the television set as we were playing and I said, I really don’t want to talk about it. I just want you to treat me like nothing ever happened.

Can we get back to the game now? Well, those folks, we didn’t just play innocent games like snowboarding games. I remember we had, again, I’m sorry, some of this stuff is going to date me here, Tony Hawk Pro Skater was a game I’m sure there’s probably on like version 20 by now, I don’t know.

But this was the original. And we were playing that game, and their parents had a rule that we could have the game and play the game as long as we muted the music. Again, I don’t know all the names and everything.

I remember one name, Papa Roach. Again, again, it probably dates me. But it was pretty terrible lyrics, foul language, again, just ungodly music, rap, rock, all kinds of terrible stuff.

And I remember what would happen is we’d be up there, and, you know, if his mom or dad were up there, it would be muted. but as soon as they walked down the stairs, he’d get into the menu and he would unmute the music. His little brother, he would say, dude, man, mom and dad don’t want us listening to that music. And the older friend of mine, who was kind of in control there,

he said, come on, preacher, why don’t you go whine to mom and dad about it? And I just went along with it. We ended up pirating movies on a regular basis, watching things we shouldn’t watch. In fact, it was that friend that encouraged me

to sneak off to a movie theater. Only time I’ve ever been in a movie theater in my entire life. It’s because of that friend. And he loved the fact that he had convinced me

to go to a movie theater. All kinds of things. Again, I’m not even going to say some of the things that we talked about because it was absolutely shameful. And it was like, whenever we were together, the greatest thing that we could accomplish

was talking about the most shameful thing possible. and I don’t know if he’s going to see this video frankly if he does I don’t mind if he hears it during that period in his life whether he was saved or not he was an enemy of the cross of Christ and so was I because I was following him listen who you follow determines your future and let me tell you my future for several years looked

very very dark last phrase here the end of verse 19 says who mind earthly things who mind earthly things these individuals these individuals who are the enemies of the cross of christ they have a mentality they have a perspective by which they assess everything that they see and that perspective is the human perspective what they see and the way they interpret things

is purely through the lens of man’s perspective it’s like this this would be an individual who um again kind of give maybe a little bit of a contrast maybe you’ve got an individual you come to them and you say oh man stuff’s going bad in my house you know my mom’s sick and my dad’s discouraged and my brothers and sisters man all they do is they just seem to fight oh what should

i do here’s what the person does from a human perspective dude just get out of there i’ll take you out on town we’ll have a lot of fun just run from that stuff that’s the human perspective whereas the heavenly perspective might be man let’s pray about that hey are you walking with god how’s your walk with God going are you responding to your siblings the way you ought to

you know listen I know things are tough at home but listen let me tell you God has an amazing purpose in it if you’ll walk with him and if you’ll trust him and if you’ll believe him for it you see the difference between a heavenly perspective and a human perspective you know here’s another example of the human perspective when it comes to the college decision

you know so often when people are considering where they’re going to go to college here is the only thing they think of do they have my major listen i’m not saying this to promote bcm let me make this clear god can lead every one of you to the college that he wants you to go to so please don’t take this as a shameless plug the one earlier

was about the Thee Generation youtube channel this is not okay let me just make that clear in case you’re feeling a conflict of interest here you know i talk to young people all the time and i say hey what are you planning on doing after high school? I don’t know. I’m still evaluating the options.

Okay, there’s nothing wrong with that. What are you looking for in a college? Well, you know, I’m looking for a place that has this degree, that has this program, that has this to do.

Oh, why do you want that? Well, because I want to be whatever and make a lot of money. And, you know, honestly, when I’m having those conversations, you know what my ears are perked up for?

And I’m hoping I hear, I’m seeking God. You know what I want to hear when I’m asking those questions young person who’s planning on going on to college, I want to hear them say, man, I may have my heart set on this, but frankly, if God were to lead me to do something different, I would drop it in a heartbeat. You know what I want to hear?

I want to hear, I was planning on doing this, that, or the other thing, but there was a day in my life when God stepped in the way, and he said, no, that’s not the best for you. I’ve got this plan that’s so much better, and I said yes to Jesus. That’s what I’m looking for and that’s what i want to hear but you know it’s so easy to do it’s so easy to view

things not from the heavenly perspective of what god wants but to view things from the human perspective what i want or what makes the most sense to me you know when it comes to marrying somebody so often we look at just the human elements is she attractive do we get along are we compatible? Listen, those things are important. My wife is attractive.

That was an important thing to me. You know what I’m saying? But you know what’s far more important?

God, what do you want? What do you want, God? You know what? My desire when I was in Bible college

is I wanted to marry the one that God had created for me. You know what? I did not want to manipulate my way into a relationship that God never intended for me to be in.

Listen, you can talk about methodology all you want. I’m not talking methodology. I’m not talking, you know, whatever the words are that are out there that so often have so much baggage attached to them.

That’s not what I’m talking about here. The earthly perspective purely considers the human elements. Does she like me?

Could I see myself spending the rest of my life with that person? Is she funny? I keep saying she, but you know, the other way around for you girls, right? When did you ever take all of those things and set them to the side for a second and say,

God, what do you want? See, the heavenly perspective is what is missing. One of the many things that’s missing from an enemy of the cross of Christ.

Is it missing from your life? Listen, I’d like to think that most of you here in this room, you want to have the heavenly perspective. You don’t want to just live based on earthly things. By the way, some of you might be thinking, man, if I let God choose my spouse, what if, what if,

what if she’s ugly? Listen, God is a far better chooser than you are. And when you let God write your love story, let me tell you what, God will give you a good one.

God will give you a great one. You know, I love my wife. I love my wife so much. And let me just say this,

it’s not just about what you get when you get married. Listen, there’s a whole life on the other side of your wedding day. God knows what kind of a person that person will become.

God knows all the different twists and turns in your future. And if you’ll let God, if you’ll have the heavenly perspective and not the earthly human perspective, God can lead you to somebody who will be exactly what you need in the most difficult times of life. Listen, I married a woman who isn’t afraid to travel all over the countryside in a 42-foot-long tin can and to have our bowls fall out every time we open our cabinet

when we arrive at the church and shatter one every couple of weeks and you’d think we’d learn by now, but we still open the cabinet door anyway. God gave me one who was incredibly resilient. God gave me one who naturally loves people like I do not.

I’m sorry, I’m not good at that. I’m working on it. God gave me someone who cares about what people think. Sometimes that’s good because I don’t care what people think

like I ought to sometimes. She’s normally the voice of reason and I sometimes get her and the Holy Spirit confused every once in a while. Because normally they’re both right. I’m saying all of that to say, young people,

be careful about the kind of people you follow. You know, there are some people in your peer group, perhaps, they don’t care about the heavenly perspective. They don’t care about what God wants.

They care about what they want. They care about what makes sense to them. And listen, while you might feel it might be a little bit of a stretch to call them an enemy of the cross of Christ, Maybe they don’t want to be, but maybe you’re here and you’re thinking, man, I’m exhibiting some of these things in my life.

Does that mean I’m on the wrong team? I’m not saying you’re lost. I’m not saying you’re going to hell.

Please do not misunderstand this sermon here tonight. My point is not that if you exhibit some of these things, you’re an enemy of the cross of Christ, but you sure look like one. And if you follow people who are enemies of the cross, well, who you follow is going to determine your future.

It’s going to influence your behavior. So can I say this? When it comes to those that you follow, follow people who share God’s cause with you. Follow people who are committed and determined

to be holy as God is holy. Follow people who don’t want to just manipulate their way into an easy, wealthy life, but people who want to be a soldier of the cross. side with those people and young people I’d like to think here in this passage again there’s so much more that I could say about the chapter the context but I think verse 20 kind of puts it puts it help in a way

that’s helpful he says for our conversation is in heaven you know the fact of the matter is if you have the right perspective you’ll recognize everything about who you are and what you do ought to have some connection to your heavenly citizenship don’t follow those people that are going to keep you anchored to this earth in the way that you think and the way that you live and the way you make choices.

But we need to recognize we have a heavenly calling. We have a charge from heaven. And we’re looking to Jesus to enable us to be all that God wants us to be. Listen, you need

to be surrendered to Jesus. If you have, if you’ve heard it once from me, you’ll hear it a million more times before I die, okay? You need to be surrendered to Jesus, and you need to depend upon his power to enable you to do what God wants you to do. But did you know that you can want to be surrendered to Jesus and dependent on his power to reach the world with the gospel and to still

let your life be sullied and soured because you’re following enemies of the cross.