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 You recall that in the book of Daniel is recorded a series of prophetic visions given to King Nebuchadnezzar, early on in Chapter 2 and a few chapters later to Daniel himself, giving quite an amazing outline, the thread of all human history, all the way up to the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

Through the vision of a great human statue and, then, through the vision of four great animals, God revealed to His servants that there would be four great empires that would dominate human history, until they would finally be replaced by the Kingdom of God at the return of Jesus Christ.

One of those, the third of those great empires, in fact, after Babylon and Persia, was going to be the Greco-Macedonian Empire and that came together under one of the greatest generals or military leaders the world has ever known, a man named Alexander.

We actually know a fair amount about Alexander because he was admired greatly, even while he was alive, and there were a number of biographers or historians who wrote about him, even starting with stories from his youth.

There was a Greek historian who lived in the First and Second Centuries A.D., whose name was Mestrius Plutarchus, mostly you'll see his name written as Plutarch today, and he wrote a series of sketches of biographies of great Greeks and great Roman leaders, and I am going to quote a little bit from Plutarch today. I think you'll find this story interesting. I'll be quoting from the old Edmund Fuller edition.

According to the story that Plutarch writes, when Alexander was still just a boy – some historians believe he was ten, some say he was twelve – but, in any event, his father, Philip, the king of Macedon, was already a great leader and he had not only united his country but freed it from enemies all around about and was building quite an empire already in the area around Greece.

He was a great horseman. He loved fine horses, strong horses, that could be useful to him in his wars and, at one point, an enormous stallion was offered to him. The stallion's name was Bucephalus and he was a beautiful horse. He was a massive horse, jet black with a white star on his forehead, at least that is how he is described in the histories. He was huge, he was fiery, and he was powerfully muscled, exactly the kind of horses that Philip liked.

Bucephalus was offered for sale by Philonicus who was a horse trader from Thessaly and he was offered at the price of thirteen talents; that was an enormous sum of money. A talent...it's kind of hard to define nowadays, exactly what a talent was because the definition varies over time, but most people feel that a talent was the equivalent of about eighty pounds. Eighty pounds of either gold or silver, that was one talent, and thirteen talents was the asking price for Bucephalus.

It's possible to calculate that a couple of different ways, but it's probably up into the millions of dollars in current value. One estimate would be about four million dollars would be offered, that's how outstanding this horse was and, yet, Philip was quite willing to pay it, that's how exceptional Bucephalus was.

So there was a lot of anticipation and when the horse finally arrived, Philip and his men, to their great deception, couldn't even get close to the horse. Just moving close to the horse caused him to go wild and no one could seem to tame him, even long enough for someone to get on his back. A couple of Philip's best horse masters managed to mount, but they were thrown immediately and after working with the horse, trying every trick that they knew, Philip and his men were ready to give up. There just didn't seem to be anything they could do. The horse looked to be completely unusable.

Alexander, at age ten or twelve (as I said, historians differ), he was watching all of this from the background and, just as they were about to take the horse away, he went to his father and he asked him if he could try to ride Bucephalus and, of course, Philip scolded him for doing that. He said, "What do you think? You're better than all of these men? You think an awful lot of yourself." He said, "Do you reproach those who are older than yourself, as if you knew more than they and that you are better able to handle the horse than they?" And Alexander answered with a certain amount of confidence. He said, "I can manage this horse better than others do." And Philip asked him, "Well, if you do not, what will you forfeit for your rashness? What will you pay if you fail?" And Alexander said, "I'll pay the whole price of the horse." That's our first hint that it's really good to be the king's son. Right? He's ten or twelve. He's already got four million dollars he can throw into this wager.

Well, imagine yourself, if you're there and you're an adult, here comes this ten-or twelve-year-old boy who says he's going to ride this massive stallion that no one else has been able to. Of course, the horse masters and the royal staff, they laughed at him. They made fun of him. Oh, he's just a brash little boy to think that he could do something like that, but Alexander insisted and Philip finally accepted the wager. As soon as the wager was accepted, Alexander ran over, took the bridle from a man who was having trouble holding the horse and talked calmly to him and Bucephalous began to calm down.

Alexander turned the stallion directly into the sunlight, facing the sun, because he had very cleverly noticed that what was making the horse so frightened, what was panicking Bucephalus, was the sight of his own shadow on the ground. So by turning him into the sun, he didn't see that shadow and he became calmer.

Alexander walked him around a bit, kept talking to him very calmly until he felt him finally grow steady and tranquil and, then, when the time was right, he slipped off his cloak and with one leap jumped up onto the back of his horse. He was seated and, again, it took him a minute or two to get Bucephalus calmed, but he did so without striking him with his crop or without using his spurs and, finally, he felt the horse grow eager to run. He had accepted the leadership of the boy on his back and so they began trotting down the training field and the trot turned into a gallop and then the gallop into a dead run, as fast as the horse could go, and everyone there watching caught his breath out of fear for what might happen to the king's young son on the stallion charging down the field.

Well, they made it down to the end of the field and Alexander turned the horse and they charged back and everyone watched even more closely because now Bucephalus could see his shadow, but, by this time, Alexander had calmed him enough to keep control and he rode the huge stallion at a run back to his father once again. He stopped in front of the stand or the group that was there and the crowd broke out in applause and cheering for what Alexander had been able to do.

His father was so proud of him that, as he rushed over to him, he had tears in his eyes and he said something that has gone down in the history books, this is a very famous quote about what Philip said to his son, Alexander. He said, "Oh, my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to you and worthy of thyself. For Macedonia is too little for you." He recognized the greatness in his son and the potential that he had, the ability that he had, the intelligence and the courage. He could see that already at age ten or twelve and he recognized at that time, at least if this account is true, that Alexander could be destined for something far beyond this relatively small kingdom of Macedonia in northern Greece.

And so he said, "Oh, my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to you and worthy of thyself. For Macedonia is too little for you." And that's what Alexander did. He began to dream and to dream big. He set himself the goal, from a very early age, of conquering all the known world and he did. He conquered his way through Persia, what is today Turkey, the land of Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, all the way into India, until, finally, he had conquered every place worthy of conquering in the known world.

He could have been distracted by being the king. You're king if you've got four million dollars at age ten or twelve. There are lots of fun things you could buy yourself. He could have just had a grand old time sitting around in his palace; but, he aimed very high. He aimed high, he saw far, he thought big. And the world still remembers him as Alexander the Great and no one has ever equaled the accomplishments that he was able to do in the 300's B.C.

Sadly, when we look at the whole story, though, Alexander died at the ripe old age of 32. Now, that's very striking, already, that he could do all of that before age 32 but, by 32, he had run out of everything worth to conquer. He had accomplished his goal and he found that there was no real happiness in it.

One story is that at 32, or around that age, he sat down and wept because there was nothing further for him to do with his life. He'd accomplished everything he wanted to and it hadn't made him happy and there's was nothing more for him to do.

He had a problem with alcohol and he drank too much. It finally killed him, but not before he had killed his best friend in a drunken rage. He aimed high, as he understood it. He accomplished a great deal, as human beings would view it but, even aiming high, he didn't know where to aim. He was aiming at purely physical accomplishments and even achieving every goal that he had set for himself didn't bring him the joy and the happiness that he sought.

I'm telling you this story today, especially aimed at the young people here because, in a way, this story applies to you. You don't have four million dollars. You're not the son of a king in Macedonia, but God has given you, everyone of you, everyone of us here, He has given us the potential to far surpass the physical world in which we live.

Our Father in Heaven tells each and every one of us, in effect, My son, My daughter, look beyond this world that you can see. Look beyond what you know. Seek for yourself a Kingdom equal to your potential, worthy of that for which I created you. Your Father in Heaven is telling you something even more important that what Philip told Alexander and He's given you the potential to be able to achieve that.

Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew, Chapter 6 and verse 33.

Matthew:6:33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

We have language here that parallels, in some ways, what Philip told Alexander; of course, this is even a greater kingdom that we're talking about here, the ultimate Kingdom.

Vs. 33 – Jesus said to His disciples, seek for yourselves a kingdom. "Seek first the kingdom of God," that's the kingdom you should be looking for, not the kingdoms of this world, not a kingdom in this world, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and all the other things will take care of themselves. "All these things shall be added unto you."

Just like Philip told Alexander, seek a kingdom worthy of your self, our Father in Heaven tells us, "Seek first the kingdom." This is where your happiness and fulfillment is going to be. This is a goal worthy of the potential that I have put in you.

Look with me, also, in I John, Chapter 3, verse 1 and 2. In this passage, God invites us through the words of the Apostle John to think big, to look beyond what we can see around us now, to aim higher than what we might think to do initially.

I John:3:1-2[1]There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:[2]The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

Vs. 1 – "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."He's asking us to aim beyond what human beings can see by themselves.

Vs. 2 – Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be." Our potential goes beyond this physical realm, things that we can see and imagine now."But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

That's the reason God created human beings to start with and that's the goal that He wants us all to have; He wants us to be His children, He wants us to inherit all things, everything that He's created, and, as we've already heard, the holy days that we observe through the year, like the Day of Pentecost tomorrow, remind us of the different steps in God's plan, how He is going act in the lives of His people to bring those children into His family fully.

Each holy day accentuates a different step in that plan and tomorrow, once again, we'll be reminded, we'll review some things, and we'll learn some new things about God's plan to make these verses become a total and final reality.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan succeeded in enticing Adam and Eve to not think in terms of the Kingdom of God . He got them to lower their eyes and just think in terms of what they could have now in the present, the pleasures of the flesh and blood world in which they lived. He discouraged them from looking beyond this physical life. He convinced them that they should settle for what this physical world could offer; that this was about as good as it got, that they could be truly happy with just that, if they would just listen to themselves.

He tricked them into thinking that what God offered them was not as good, not as big, not as grand, not as much fun and, sadly, Adam and Eve fell for it. They didn't seek a Kingdom equal to the potential that God had put in them and, today, Satan wants us, today, young people, Satan wants you to think and do the same thing. He wants you to limit yourself to this present world, to this physical kingdom if you will, that we see around us, to its goals and its fun. He doesn't want you to look any higher or any farther because he knows that if he can get you to lower your gaze to this world, then you won't be able to inherit the greater joys that our Father in Heaven wants to give us.

Not that goals or fun in this life are wrong. There are goals that are fine. There is fun that is healthy and fine in this life. It's just not enough. There is so much more that you can have, that you can inherit and, in fact, the joys of this life are even greater when we do things God's way because we know where we're going. We have a greater goal. We have a greater hope. Our eyes can rise to something higher and better.

Luke, Chapter 12. It's always a struggle and it always will be a struggle, as long as we're in this flesh, to keep our priorities straight about that; to keep our eyes focused on what it is to keep, on the greater Kingdom, the Kingdom that God wants us to achieve. Luke, Chapter 12, verse 13.

This is an interesting episode here because here is Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, explaining the words of eternal life. Here He's opening the door to eternity to the people that are hearing Him, explaining the truths about the plan of God and how they could inherit what God wanted to give them, but someone didn't have his eyes high enough. He was only looking at the physical things of this world and, so, verse 13.

Luke:12:13-21[13]And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.[14]And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?[15]And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.[16]And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:[17]And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?[18]And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.[19]And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.[20]But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?[21]So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Vs. 13 – "Then one from the crowd said, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.'

Apparently his parents had died and they were worrying about the will now, how things were going to be divided up, and this fellow felt like he'd gotten a raw deal. His brother had cheated him, so instead of coming to Jesus and saying, teach me, how can I inherit eternal life, how can I be part of the Kingdom of God, he came to Jesus and said, make him give me more of my money. His priorities weren't right and Jesus, interestingly, didn't allow Himself to be drawn into that. He didn't give in to manipulative people and He said that's not my job, that's not why I came.

Vs. 14 – "But He said to him, 'Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?'

Vs. 15 – "And He said to them, 'Take heed and beware of covetousness.' " That was the lesson here, that's what that guy had fallen into. "' For one's life does not consist of the abundance of the things he possesses.'" It's not about this world. It's not about the wealth or the values of this world; that's not what determines the quality of our life or our future destiny.

Vs. 16 – "Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: 'The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.'"

Vs. 17 – "And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?'" I mean, that was the ultimate stock portfolio in those days. He had so much coming in from his fields he couldn't fit it all in the barn; that was one wealthy farmer.

Vs. 18 – "So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and I'll build greater, and there I will store all my crops and all my goods."' I have got it made. I don't know what I'm going do with all the money I've got.

Vs. 19 – "'And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.'" You've got it made – golden retirement.

Vs. 20 – "But God said to him, 'You fool! '" You've got your priorities wrong. " 'This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will these things be which you have provided?"'

It's going to go...somebody else is going to spend that, somebody else is going to eat all of that. You're not going to.

Vs. 21 – And Jesus concluded in verse 21 by saying that's the way it is for those "who lay up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

It is two fundamentally different outlooks on life. We can live for this kingdom, the physical kingdom of men now and whatever it offers to us, or we can look beyond. We can look at something more durable that will last forever and so much better than this physical life.

Romans 8 points out just how wonderful those things are; we can't fully grasp, yet, how fantastic the future is going to be. God just gives us hints once in awhile, but those hints should really make us sit up and pay attention.

Romans:8:18-23[18]For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.[19]For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.[20]For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,[21]Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.[22]For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.[23]And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body., 28, 31

Vs. 18 – "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

Yes, if we live for the Kingdom of God , if that's what we're seeking first, there will be difficulties, it's not going to be a bed or roses all the time, there are sufferings, but it's not worthy to be compared.

Vs. 19 – "For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God."

Vs. 20 – "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;"

Vs. 21 – "because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

Life is going to be revolutionized. The world is going to be revolutionized when the Kingdom of God is installed here. It will be different from anything that the world or its inhabitants have ever known.

Vs. 22 – "For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now." This is a hard world, not an easy place.

Vs. 23 – "Not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body."

Vs. 28 – "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

We heard a little bit about that in some of the comments about the classes for our young people. When we are called according to His purpose and we answer that calling, we say, yes, that's what I want. I want to reach for that better Kingdom. Then God makes all things work out to our good.

Vs. 31 – "What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"

Yeah, the road is not always easy. It's a little bumpy; in fact, it's very bumpy sometimes, but God promises the help we need to be able to do it, if we'll just raise our eyes and look at that other Kingdom.

What does God think you're worthy of? Just like Philip told Alexander. Find a kingdom worthy of yourself. What kind of Kingdom does God think you are worthy of? To what Kingdom does He think you are equal? Well, in fact, it is the greatest Kingdom that there ever can be.

Alexander the Great conquered the known world of his time. We'll go farther. We'll achieve more. We'll have more. We'll know more. We'll do more than anything he could have possibly imagined. There are no limits.

I'll just quote to you Daniel Chapter 2 and verse 44, I won't turn to it, but there it talks about the Kingdom of God; when it will come, what it will be like, how different it will be from anything that's gone before.

Daniel:2:44And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Vs. 44 – It says: "In the days of these kings (at the end time), the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever."

Isn't that a Kingdom worthy of the potential that God has put in us? Isn't that a Kingdom that we want to be a part of?

Sometimes, I think it's hard for us, when we're younger (and I grew up in the Church, I can relate to some of this myself) it can be hard for us to think that we're really that important, that God really thinks about us as young people. Oh, He's just working with the adults and I'll get there someday, but I don't really need to worry about that now.

In fact, the Bible shows all along that He's got our young people in mind as well. He thinks about you. He thinks about the part you can play and the things that you are preparing to do and the character that you are developing already. He thinks about you and there are prophecies that talk about how young people are going to be treated, at least in the early days, of the Kingdom of God when it's established on the earth.

Isaiah, Chapter 49 – it's just one example, we could take others, but actually this is one of my favorite prophecies when I was a kid growing up in the Church. I could imagine myself in this situation here. Maybe you can identify with this as well.

Isaiah:49:22-23[22]Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.[23]And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

Vs. 22 – "Thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, and set up My standard for the peoples; they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;'"

Vs. 23 – " 'Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait on Me.'"

That's a prophecy about the children of His people at the return of Jesus Christ. God has you very much in mind as part of His plan. He wants you to be a part of it. He offers the same potential to you that He has given to your parents. It's just up to you to accept that and say, yes, I want that. I want to aim higher. I want to reach for that other Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. I want to seek that first.

So, it's important for us to think about consequences and to think about the results of different decisions that we will make, because every decision that we make carries consequences with it.

Proverbs:19:20Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. is an interesting example, I think. Proverbs is a particularly important book for young people because it was written specifically for young people by the wisest king who ever ruled.

Proverbs:19:20-21[20]Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.[21]There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

Vs. 20 – "Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days."

Now, that's interesting. The decisions that you make now, as young people, can have a big impact on determining whether you are going to be wise in your latter days; whether you're going to have the knowledge, the knowledge database, if you will, whether you're going to have the necessary experiences, the necessary understanding about the principles of life that's going to have a big impact on how your life is in your latter days, when you get a little bit older. We're always preparing for the next step, the next period in our lives.

Look at verse 21.

Vs. 21 – "There are many plans in a man's heart; nevertheless the Lord's counsel, that will stand."

We can make all sorts of different plans and, if we limit our planning to this present world, if that's all we think about, then our counsel, ultimately, is not going to stand. The counsel that will stand, that's God's counsel. He gives us instruction, He gives understanding, He gives us the priorities that we really need to seek.

How many of you have ever seen Fool's Gold? Will you raise your hand if you've seen Fool's Gold? You've probably held it, at some point. I remember having a lump of it one time. I don't know whatever happened to it. I lost it someplace in one of all the different moves that we made. Fool's Gold is actually called iron disulfide or iron pyrite, the chemical identification is FeS2 and it's a common ferrous, meaning iron mineral that has a gold color. It looks like gold.

Many a prospector felt his heart start to beat very quickly when he saw that gold color, until it turned out just to be Fool's Gold. It looks like gold, but it's not. It looks very valuable; in fact, it's worthless. In fact, not only worthless, it can be poisonous. When mining operations open up iron disulfide to the air it chemically reacts with the oxygen in the air and it becomes toxic. Maybe you've seen pictures of old mining areas, maybe a strip mine, and you notice there's sort of a yellowish color to everything; that's Fool's Gold that's reacted and it's become a toxic waste, in fact, and it will kill plant life and aquatic animals when it runs off into the ground water. It looks very valuable, but it can be deadly.

And there are values like that in the world today. The values of this world look really good sometimes, but they turn out to be toxic. The values that this world pushes on us and that Satan pushes on us are Fool's Gold. They are counterfeit. They're not true.

Things like selfishness: live for yourself. Make yourself happy. Things like physical beauty that people seek so much. Physical pleasures. Riches. They're just material things. Gadgets. Things that we can hold and touch that we like. Things like iPods and video equipment and cool clothes and cars and big houses and all the things that many, many people spend their lives trying to achieve.

A lot of people spend their lives trying to achieve status; that is, having people admire us, look up to us, think we're really great or special. We have whole television programs now... some of the most popular television programs in the nation are about people who are trying to become the American Idol. They want people to look at them and know who they are and think they're great and, for many people, that's about as good as it gets. They can't think much better than that.

If you could have any job you wanted, a lot of young people would pick something like rock star or actor, even though most of their lives end up being very miserable, but everybody knows who they are and they are adulated and that can seem pretty good in this life, but it's a false value.

So, Satan will try to fool us about the real values of certain things by getting us to focus on one set of values when, in reality, we should be focusing on another set of values. I remember reading a story awhile back, which made me smile a little bit, and I'll share it with you now.

It was about a father who wanted to teach his daughter the value of money, so he carefully explained the value of numbers. Ten is more than nine is more than eight is more than seven is more than six, and he made sure she understood the value of the different numbers. Yes, she got it.

So then, he gave her a dollar coin and sent her down to the shop at the corner of the street there to buy... he told her she could buy whatever she wanted with this dollar and she came back, some minutes later, with five pennies in her hand and her father said, well, what did you buy with the money. She said, well, I didn't buy anything. I just made more money instead.

And the father said, well, how did that happen? How does it happen that you have five pennies? And she said, well, you'll be very happy with me, Daddy, because I remembered what you told me. You see, I only had one coin, but Johnny gave me two coins for my one coin. Two is more than one. Her father said, well, what was on the coins he gave you? She said, well, there's a guy with a wig on it and a bird on the other side. Uh-huh. So you traded two quarters for a dollar? And then what happened?

Well, then I met Sally and she gave me three coins for my two coins. They were very small, but I remembered that three is more than two, so now I have more. You traded two quarters for three dimes. Three is more than two, Daddy, right? Then, David gave me four bigger coins and I only gave him three, because four is more than three, right? And then, Jane gave me these five brown ones for the four silver ones that I had, because five is more than four. Aren't you proud of me, Daddy?

She thought she understood the value of money. She thought she did, because five is more than four is more than three is more than two is more than one and she came back with five, instead of only having one. And she came back with five instead of only having one, she partially understood some of what was going on and, in her mind, it was all very clear. She'd made good business decisions there; but, she was trading something of greater value for something of lesser value because there was an element of understanding about the intrinsic value of those coins that she didn't get yet. She was only looking at the raw numbers not what the value of each one of those coins really was.

And, I believe that is very illustrative of what humanity has been doing for thousands of years. We trade off things that are so much more valuable for things that are so much less valuable. We still, mankind as a whole, human kind, doesn't understand the value of things that are real, like contact with God and obedience to Him, like truthfulness and honesty, like living a way of give instead of a way of get, and so on and so forth.

The values of the world, on the other hand, are things we've already talked about: power, money, pleasure, status, things that make us feel good right now, and status is a particularly hard one to get around. We like other people to think well of us. We don't like people to have a bad opinion of us. We don't like to feel like we're "out of it," not part of the "in" crowd, and that's a particularly strong pull for teens; it's a pull on all of us in all parts of our lives, but it is a particularly strong one for teens and I think, as parents, if you have teens, I'm sure you're aware of that. We really need to make an effort to encourage our young people and help them stand up to the pressure that the world puts on them to do wrong things.

It's easy for us, especially as teens, to believe that what other teens think about us is more important than what our parents think about us or what God thinks about us, and that's not true, but it can be very hard to get around. The pull of peer pressure is very, very strong. Have you ever done something that turned out to be kind of stupid because your friends or supposed friends put you up to it? Told you, you really needed to do it?

I remember when I was about, probably ten or eleven, around the age of Alexander when he tamed Bucephalous. Unfortunately, I didn't have four million or didn't tame a big horse. I did have an interesting and educational experience though. My friends, on my street, dared me to ride my bicycle at full speed over a ramp that they had set up out in the street and they told me that if I didn't do that, I would be a scaredy-cat. That was awful! Some of you younger people may have to check the dictionary, get an old dictionary, and you'll find out what scaredy-cat was. Ancient vocabulary for "chicken."

Well, I didn't think any farther along than not wanting to be considered a scaredy-cat. Robbie Knievel didn't have anything on me. I was going to show these guys. So, out I go in the street with my hot, red, relatively new bicycle with a beautiful long banana seat. You remember those? And I got up a full head of steam as fast as I could and I hit that ramp, went off in air with a big proud smile on my face. I'd show those guys I wasn't a scaredy-cat. Then things didn't turn out quite the way I had intended. The bicycle did a slow roll backward and I landed in a big heap of twisted handlebars, chain grease, torn jeans, blood, and a significant quantity of gravel imbedded in my skin in various places. And suddenly, I forgot all about my fear of being a scaredy-cat.

My priorities came to an abrupt change at that point. Pain sort of overrode everything else and I did learn an important lesson there. Just because all my friends said you'll be a scaredy-cat if you don't do this, just because everybody else wanted me to and told me I had to and egged me on to do it, it didn't mean it was a very smart thing to do. In fact, it turned out to be a pretty dumb thing to do, not the only one I did, by the way, in my youth.

Have you ever done anything that turned out to be dumb because somebody told you, egged you on to do it? Everybody is doing it. It's really cool. What are you scared of? Chicken! Don't listen to the warnings. Don't worry about the consequences. Just do it! Anybody ever fall into that trap? I won't ask you to raise your hands. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that ended up doing something like that.

And, teens don't like to hear their parents remind them of that. Oh, I know, you already told me that. Why do you think your parents remind you of that, more than you want to hear it? It's because they learned that lesson the hard way and they would really like to save you the trouble of having to learn it that way. They know what the results are and you will, one day, know the results too. You will know the way that works. You can learn it the hard way or you can learn it the easy way. Your parents are just trying to help you learn it the easy way.

The consequences for our actions are sure to come. Everything we do has a consequence. Galatians, Chapter 6 and verse 7, there's a really short verse here, Galatians, Chapter 6 and verse 7, very short, you would do well to memorize this verse, if you've not done so already. This is an important principle that we need to understand about life.

Galatians:6:7Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Vs. 7 – "Do not be deceived;" and when the Bible warns us not to be deceived about something, it's a signpost that says there is a strong risk that you will be deceived about it, that's why, don't be deceived, don't be fooled by this, it's easy to do; " Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."

Everyday we go along, symbolically, planting seeds. And those seeds are going to sprout and they are going to grow and one day we're going to have a harvest from the seeds that we plant, "whatever we sow, that we will also reap."

It doesn't happen always immediately. Sometimes some consequences do come immediately. Sometimes it takes days or weeks or months. Sometimes it takes years. Some of the things that we plant now, we won't fully reap until the resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ, but that verse says don't be deceived. It's easy to be deceived about it. Lots of people are deceived about it, but "whatever a man sows, that's what he will reap."

If you sow good things, you'll reap good things. If you sow bad things, you'll reap bad things. If you sow a mix of good and bad, you'll reap a mix of good and bad. It's just a principle of life.

I don't know if any of you have ever had a chance to throw a boomerang. Someone gave me one, one time. They're a lot harder to throw than they look, but you've probably at least seen on television somebody who can throw a boomerang really well, and when somebody who knows what he's doing with a boomerang throws it, it goes off and sometimes it kind of hangs around out there for a little while and then it comes back to the person who threw it. It was a hunting device, actually, in Australia. The Aborigines could throw it at small game and, if they missed, it would come back to them. They wouldn't lose it. And, of course, if they hit the game, then they had dinner.

Consequences are a little bit like boomerangs. Everything that we do is kind of like throwing a boomerang out there. If we do something good, we're throwing a good boomerang out there. If we do something bad, against God's law, we're throwing a bad boomerang out there. Some of them come back pretty quickly. Some of them hang around out there for years before they come back, but they always come back. Sometimes, in fact often, they come back without warning. We're just going along there and wham!! Where did that come from? Well, the boomerang you threw a couple of years ago, it's just been hanging around out there.

Sometimes, we're really happy when they arrive because, boy, I just got a return on something good I did awhile back, and sometimes it hurts because we're getting a return on something we did that we shouldn't have done. Just remember that every day, as you go around in your everyday life, you're tossing boomerangs out, day after day after day. You want to make sure you're throwing good ones, ones that you'll be happy to have come back again. Not ones that are going to whack you in the back of the head when you don't expect it and be very painful and cause regret and sorrow.

We were talking about peer pressure, about how important status is to us among our friends and our acquaintances. It's an important lesson and a sign of maturity to be able to stand up against peer pressure that tries to influence us in the wrong ways. Sometimes peer pressure can be good. When we come here to Church, there's a positive kind of peer pressure that's here. We encourage each other in the right way. That's one reason it's so important to come and be here and fellowship and talk with one another, because the people that we frequent do affect us. The kind of company we keep does have an impact on the way we live our own lives.

The world in which we live, though, is increasingly going a different direction and we have to go out in that world sometimes, to work, to study, and so we have to develop the courage to be able to stand up to wrong peer pressure and continue doing the right thing. To do what God tells us to do, to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, even if other people ridicule us for it; like King Philip and his entourage laughed at Alexander when he said he could handle Bucephalous, and he actually could, but they mocked him.

Alexander could have backed off. Oooh, that hurts when people laugh at you. We don't want that. He could have backed off and just said, oh, you're probably right. Well, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to risk failing in front of all these people who are laughing at me, but he didn't do that. He had the courage to put his money where his mouth is, if you like.

If we stand for the hope of the Kingdom of God, if we seek that Kingdom, and if we live our lives around that hope and that promise, that's the best way to do it, but there will be people who mock at us and laugh at us and point fingers at us.

Some of you are heading off to university now. Others of you are already there. And when you go to university in the United States of America , nowadays, you are entering a moral battleground. Some of your professors, many of them in fact, without knowing it, they certainly don't set out to be that way, but they are going to be spiritual enemies. As I said, they don't do it on purpose, they don't know it, they're fooled along with the rest of the world, but they will be your spiritual enemies, because some of them want very much to break down your faith. They feel like belief in the Bible and belief in God is a bad thing for you and they will try to take that apart. They'll try to knock it down. Some of them will laugh at you, if you dare to believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

Many will mock at the very existence of God. They'll tell you God doesn't exist, there is no proof, that's just a fool's hope for weak minds, and they can lay on ridicule pretty strongly. Some of them will ridicule the truth that Christ will return to earth to establish the Kingdom of God , the truths that we're reading about now in the Bible.

Many of them will deride the belief that there is any objective truth at all. They'll tell you there is no truth. Truth is what you want it to be, it's what you make up for yourself. Your parents have their truth, you have your own truth, you decide for yourself what you want to believe, and there will be a lot of peer pressure to go along with that.

They'll tell you, you should decide for yourself what you want to believe. You should be free, but it's not truly freedom that they propound, it's really spiritual slavery and those are not boomerangs that we want to throw out there to have come back again in our future.

Peter foresaw our time period. II Peter, Chapter 3. God gave Peter a prophetic vision of what the world was going to be like now.

II Peter 3:1-11

Vs. 1 – "Beloved, I now write to you, the second epistle; in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder:"

Vs. 2 – "That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:"

Vs. 3 – "Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts."

Their main motivation is just wanting to be able to live their lives any old way they please, so don't tell me there are moral frameworks, don't tell me that there are absolute truths and guidelines that everybody should respect; that would make me feel bad as I live my life, the way I want to do it. So, they'll scoff. To scoff means to make fun, to ridicule, to put down. And, they're going to say, among other things, verse 4:

Vs. 4 – "Where is the promise of his coming?" You believe Christ is going to come back? People have been believing that for two thousand years. It hasn't happened yet. Not going to happen. Better get over that. "Where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."

Vs. 5 – "For this they willfully forget, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water:"

Vs. 6 – "By which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water."

You know, when the Flood broke out at the time of Noah, there were a lot of really surprised people in the world. They weren't expecting that. They'd been going along, just living their lives the way people had been doing for generation to generation. Nobody thinks the world is going to end during their lifetime. Just one day it's going to happen. But, that's what the Bible says.

Vs. 7 – "But the heavens and the earth, which now exist, are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."

Vs. 8 – "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

Vs. 9 – "He is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Vs. 10 – "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with great noise, the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."

Vs. 11 – "Therefore since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness."

Think about the end result. Think about what's coming and then ask yourself the question: How should I be living my life? How should I be living my life?

God tells us what the end of the story is going to be. So, we have to ask ourselves the question: Will we stand up to the ridicule and the laughter of those teachers, university teachers, and for parents, I mean, you face this at work sometimes. There are other people that you know.

Will we settle for what this world can offer us? Will we settle for this little, small, physical kingdom now or will we reach out for something greater? Will we settle for Fool's Gold or will we seek what is truly valuable?

Wisdom, for us, is to seek what your Creator wants to give you because what He wants is best. He wants to give you a Kingdom equal to your potential. He created you, specifically, with the potential to be a part of that Kingdom and enjoy and participate in it. God made you; He gave that potential to you. You're worthy of that. He's put that worth in you. He gives it to us and we can't understand everything now. He doesn't give us the answer to every last question, but He does give us what we need to know.

I Corinthians, Chapter 2, please, to start with.

I Corinthians 2:7-14

The Apostle Paul talking here says:

Vs. 7 – "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory." That's what God has had in mind all along.

Vs. 8 – "Which none of the rulers of this age knew: for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

Most people in the world just go through their lives and they're totally ignorant of what God is doing, of the incredible potential that God has put in people. They just don't even know they can't know. Their minds are closed to it, but you can know. You do know. What a wonderful gift that is.

Drop down to verse 9.

Vs. 9 – "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him." That's a pretty short verse, but when you think about what that means, it means we only just get little glimpses of all the good things that God is storing up for us, that He is preparing. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard." We can't fully understand it.

God has revealed them, verse 10, through His Spirit.

Vs. 10 – "The spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God."

Vs. 11 – "What man knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God."

Vs. 12 – "We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."

Vs. 13 – These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches: comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

Vs. 14 – "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness to him." That's why your university professors scoff at all of this; they're natural people. They don't have access to the Spirit of God.

And even we, to whom God reveals these things through His Spirit, Paul said in I Corinthians 13:12, "we only see through a glass," through a mirror, "dimly."

Mirrors in those days were not the kind of mirrors that we have today. It was more like, sort of, polished metal. You could look at a mirror and sort of get the general outline of what you were looking at, but it wasn't very clear, it wasn't very sharp, and that's the way it is with some of the promises that God gives us now.

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those that love Him." That's the Kingdom God wants you to reach out for.

As I was growing up...I told you I grew up in the Church from the time I was born...and, as we got close to the Feast of Tabernacles one of the things we really looked forward to were our Feast gifts. Maybe your parents do that as well. My parents always bought our Feast gifts months in advance and wrapped them up so we couldn't see what they were, but they looked so enticing. You know how fun it is to get gifts when you're nine, ten, eleven...well, actually, it's always fun to get gifts, isn't it?

They wrapped them up so we couldn't see what they were and they put them up on top of the refrigerator, on the edge of the refrigerator so we could see them. Everyday we walked into the kitchen and, you know, breakfast, lunch, whatever, we were looking at those. We really anticipated getting those Festival gifts. We couldn't see them and we couldn't touch them, except the one time when nobody was around and I moved a chair over so I could feel mine. I don't think my parents knew about that. And, we looked at them everyday and got more and more excited about them the closer we got to the Feast. I still remember the anticipation and the excitement very well.

Do you like surprises? Do you like really, really good surprises? Well, God says He's keeping His very best surprises for those who are faithful to Him. They're up there now, sitting on the edge of the cosmic refrigerator, just waiting for us. He's got them all wrapped and they're prepared. Do you want to receive the best surprises that the Creator of all that exists has imagined for those that He loves? What is that worth?

Our Father tells each and every one of us. Don't accept Satan's Fool's Gold. Don't settle only for what this world can offer you. If you do, one day you'll end up like Alexander. Sitting down and weeping for disappointment, because he'd achieved all he'd dreamed of and it didn't make him happy. No, that's not what we should do.

What we need to do is seek a Kingdom worthy of that for which God has created us. Don't sell yourself short. You have such incredible potential. Remember. In a way very similar to what Philip told Alexander, God tells each one of us: Oh, my son. Oh, my daughter. Look thee out a Kingdom equal to the potential I've given you, worthy of that for which I've created you. For this whole world today is too little for you.