What some of you may not know is
that in the Bible there are lots and
lots of stories, true stories, of God selecting
young people right from the very first book
of the Bible.
In fact, He even selected a little child
once called Samuel, he was a little boy.
And in the first book of the Bible
you read about God choosing a young man
who was only 17 years old, Joseph.
You read later on about His choosing another
young man who was probably about 19, called
David.
And even when Jesus came to earth, and
not only that, the number of prophets like
that, you know, Jeremiah was a very, very
young man when God called him.
And even Jesus, when He called His 12
disciples, they were all in their 20s.
Now, we have a question there.
Why does God choose young people?
Why doesn't He choose people who are 60
or 70?
He chooses young people in the Old Testament,
He chose young people when Jesus came to
earth.
And there's a reason for that.
Because young people like you have your whole
life ahead of you.
Now, you may see me with grey hair
saying this, but I made this decision 44
years ago, when I was young like you.
I made a decision in my life that
God who created me would be first in
my life.
And today I'm standing before you not preaching
some theory, but something that I have proved
the reality of for 44 years.
And I want to say it's worth it
to make a decision when you're young.
I was 19 when I made that decision.
One, because you got your whole life ahead
of you.
I mean, if God picked a person who
was 60, how much of his life does
he have ahead of him?
Very little.
But when God picks you up, when you're
a teenager, like I was a teenager, I
hadn't even become 20, or in your early
20s, you have the opportunity of right from
very early in life to make maximum use
of your life on earth.
You know, all of us get only one
opportunity to live on this earth.
In all the school and college examinations, if
you failed once, you can always sit it
a second time.
Sit for it a second time, a third
time.
But life is not like that.
Once you've finished your life, if you failed,
you can't sit a second time.
There is no second time.
The Bible says, it's appointed unto all men,
once to die, and after that the judgment.
So, we have only one life, and we
can't afford to get it wrong.
We can't spend all our life, or 75
% of our life, discovering we were on
the wrong track at the end of 60
years or so.
At the end of it, discovering we were
on the wrong track, and then, try to
make the best of our life thereafter.
There is very little of life left thereafter.
And that's why it's wonderful to remember our
Creator when we are young.
There is a verse in the Bible.
I want to read it to you.
If you have a Bible, you can turn
it.
Otherwise, just listen to me as I read
it.
It's in the book of Ecclesiastes, which comes
after Psalms and Proverbs, in Chapter 12.
Here is what God's Word says.
Ecclesiastes 12, verse 1.
Remember your Creator in the days of your
youth.
Before the evil days come.
That's when you are much later in life.
When you will say, I don't have any
delight in that.
Remember your Creator in the days of your
youth.
Before the evil days come.
When you say, I have no delight in
that.
Another reason why God, Jesus, when He was
on earth, chose young people is because young
people can be molded.
And, you know, like a little plant can
be bent in any direction.
When it's a plant and you can't bend
it, you can't change its shape when it's
a tree.
But when it's a little plant, you can
make it grow straight or one direction or
another direction.
Young people are like that.
See, Jesus knew when He was on earth
that if He picked up a 50 or
a 60 year old man, He couldn't mold
that man's thinking.
Because man's thinking has been set in a
certain way for 60 years.
But you folks, your minds are not set.
Many of you are in the process of
learning.
Learning new things.
And that's the time when your mind can
be molded.
And your life can be directed to the
very best possible way.
And Jesus came to reveal that God is
a good God, a loving Father.
He even said that the best earthly father
was evil compared to God.
Not that the best earthly father was evil,
but compared to God.
You know, it's like something like saying, the
stars have got light.
That's right, isn't it?
The stars have got light.
At least we can see light.
They don't have light, but we see them
as light.
But that light, even though the star is
a burning fire, when the sun comes up,
the light disappears.
It's there, but the sun is so bright
that you can't see the stars.
And that's a picture of the best father's
love on earth is like the light of
a star.
Yeah, he's got love.
But when compared to God's love, stars like
darkness.
That's what Jesus said.
That the best father's love was darkness compared
to God's love.
It was so great.
Now the reason why I say that is,
you see, a lot of people think that
religion is for old people.
I thank God that I didn't believe that
when I was 19.
Religion is for young people.
True religion.
I don't mean false religion.
And I'm not talking about...
You see, unfortunately, even a lot of things
that go by the name of Christianity today
are not really true Christianity.
You know, just like you heard of counterfeit
100 rupee notes, counterfeit 500 rupee notes.
Why are there counterfeits?
Why do people make counterfeits?
Because the original is valuable.
Nobody makes counterfeit brown paper because the original
is not valuable.
Counterfeit is only made of something valuable.
And that's why there's a lot of counterfeit
Christianity.
You probably met counterfeit Christians in your life.
You probably met counterfeit pastors.
I'm not surprised.
Because there are real Christians, just like real
100 rupee notes, there's counterfeit 100 rupee notes.
So, I'm not talking about Christianity in which
you may have seen a lot of counterfeits.
But I'm talking about Jesus Christ, a person.
You see, the true Christian faith is not
a religion in the sense of a way
of life.
Many people think of so many religions, there
are different ways of life.
And that's a very popular thing to accept
nowadays.
You know, when we say that there's only
one way of salvation, and that is through
Jesus Christ, people say, well, you're being very
narrow-minded when you say there's only one
way to God.
But you know, truth is always narrow-minded.
Truth is always narrow-minded.
2 plus 2 equals 4.
It's not 3.9. It's not 4.1.
It's not 3.8. It's not even 3
.99. It is 4.
So a good mathematician is very narrow-minded.
He says, I'm sorry, 2 plus 2 is
always 4.
That's the truth.
There is no other way.
So remember this, that if you really got
the truth, it's only one.
You can't have so many options when it
comes to truth.
But if it's not the truth, then of
course you got many options.
And we're talking not about a way of
life, you know, be good and don't harm
other people.