The importance of our youth

Genesis 41, reading at verse 12. And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard. And we told him and he interpreted to us our dreams.

To each man according to his dream he did interpret. We've been hearing about men in the past and people in the future and future people in the present. There is something that I want to pass on just for a few minutes and I didn't realize there was even a balcony here so we have a few young people up there.

And the importance of our young. There is something beautiful about a young man, about a young woman who has their life set on priorities as far as God is concerned. We should do everything in our power, dear brethren, to guide those individuals in the ways that would be in Christ.

If any time we see the ear drooping, as my uncle Roy often said in his cattle, when he saw the ear drooping, he got the shreds, the penicillin, and perhaps in a couple of days the ears were coming up. But there's something wonderful about young people that have a God-given planted conviction that I'm going to make the most of my life and I'm going to make it most for God. I want to encourage this young audience.

I want to encourage that clientele today because let me say something, friend, let me say something dear young believer. I don't know whether anybody has told you, you are needed. Nobody ever approached me when I was a young man of, well, whatever.

Just getting started, floundering, perhaps not knowing my right hand from my left and maybe I still don't. But there was nobody that ever came and approached me and said, Al, we need you. Could you be a help to us? Could you be reminded, could you remind us of spiritual truths and spiritual matters as far as the assembly is concerned? I watched Elmer Stickford walk up here today.

A couple of years ago I watched Ronnie Wessels walk up. I'm watching Uncle Roy walk out of the auditorium and his wife. These believers that we had taken so for granted, believers that were full of feminine energy, they're slowing down.

And who's going to take their place? Who's going to step in with a torch of testimony and carry it? And to the overseers that are looking for younger men, older men are looking and they're standing and they're observing a young man that is willing to say no to the world, that is willing to say no to prosperity, that is willing to say no to the allurements of a world that is fast ripening for judgment. Where are these young men? Thank God we have them. We have them, dear older Christian.

We do. Let's not look down on the older people. Let's not look down on the younger and say that they can't do it as well as I. Well, maybe they can't, but give them a chance.

I was with Brother Lavery visiting in Wisconsin and this dear old soul served us a cup of tea. And, well, the old days, they're not like the old days anymore, are they, brethren? All the good preachers are dead. Where's Bill? Is he here? Yeah.

Remember that? She went out to get another cup of tea and come back with a teacup and he points to his stomach and he says, you know, I don't feel very good myself. So not all the good men aren't dead, brethren. We have good young men and we have good young women.

And may we put confidence in them. May we give them. May we give them a little bit of responsibility.

I visited an assembly many, many years ago and there's a man at the door and he's handing out the books. He's got one hand with his books and the other hand, he's on a cane. He's near a nursing home.

And in this large assembly, there's only 40 other men that could do what he could be doing. And I scratched my head as I left and I'm wondering, was there not the willingness to put something into the hands and the responsibility of younger men? Now, this young, this verse tells me, gives me some insight as to our responsibility to the younger generation. I cannot but see five things in this particular verse and it has helped me more than once.

You notice that the verse is saying, and there was there with us a young man. Number one, he's with us. He's here.

He's not out doing, he's not out skipping out when conference time comes. He's not out doing something that perhaps maybe is very legitimate and it might be legitimate. But the Cedar Falls Waterloo conference is this weekend and he puts on his calendar and he marks it down.

I have to save that weekend to be at the conference. I've got stout conference is coming, Ankeny by the way, coming up. Put it on your calendar, a little advertisement.

Put it on your calendar that I've got to be, I try and be a help. So what I'm saying, he's here. They're here.

And I had to skip out for a few minutes while one of my brothers was preaching and I stood at the doorway and instead of the young people up here, I noticed that they were back there whether they're still here or not. I can't see that far in this large auditorium. But thank God, thank God for the young men that come and thank God for the young man who's sitting there with a notebook and they're taking notes and they're writing down and they're putting that into their little notebook that's going to go into their little mind.

Future things that they can give when the older men are passed on. I've got the nuggets. First series of gospel meetings I ever sat in after I was a believer was that stout.

Norman Crawford and Eric McCullough. I remember outlines that those men gave yet. I remember Eric McCullough speaking on Genesis chapter 22, Abraham taking Isaac up to the mountain, offering there as a burnt offering.

And I went home that night thrilled that the gospel message was so simple and so clear and so plain. I don't know whether I ever told Eric or not, but I stole a sermon. Wonderful to see younger men.

They're with us. Younger sisters, they're here, they're with us. And they aren't here looking for a man.

And the young men aren't here looking for a girl. They're here to take notes. They want, they want more.

I think it's our responsibility to give them credit and to put confidence in them and for the desire that they have. So he's dependable, isn't he? The young man is with us. Joseph, there was a young man, Joseph.

He is dependable. He's not looking for ways to skip out. There was ways that you could do that, but he's here.

He's with us. Number two, he's a young man. And the young men are committed.

The young men are considered those men that are committed and devoted. He had to make a choice. He had priorities in his life that he's got to categorize.

And those priorities are shifted. And I think it's stages of lifetime that the priorities can be shifted. But this young man, he saw what was important.

I'm talking about now at the conference in Waterloo and Cedar Falls. I'm looking at some young men, I think I pick a couple out back there. You know what's important and you're here and the attitude of your heart is, speak, Lord, for Thy servant hear us.

And as their priorities are changed, he has a young mind. There is something about his mind that has it over the older men. It's sharp.

It's keen. It's able to have quick recall. I was at the Bible readings in Mount Sterling, and I'm in this lunch line with this young man.

And I say to him, well, I suppose I better swallow my pride and ask what your name is. He says, Spencer. OK, Spencer, Spencer Gall.

OK. Glad to meet you, Spencer. He began to chuckle.

You know, well, we went through this just five weeks ago at the Marion. What was my problem? My problem was John Mark Slaboff's comment, TMB. Too many birthdays.

And just a month before, I do the same thing with Spencer and he tells me, and now I'm doing the same thing. Young men don't have that problem. Your mind is caught.

And in a Bible reading where the young man is sitting there, they can have a quick recall. They've got the answer. Thank God for our young men.

Not only are they committed, but they're devoted. We've been reminded, just reminded, about Timothy. My, what great delight, Paul, the apostle must have had in that young man.

I have no man like-minded. There was something about Timothy that brought joy and pleasure to Paul the apostle's heart. It must have brought pleasure to those at Lystra and Derby that listened to Timothy minister the Word, do the work of an evangelist, as Paul would tell Timothy.

There was something about him. Did you notice? Yes, you have. You have noticed that when you read Timothy, but thou, but thou, but thou.

Why is that so emphatic? It's because others weren't now included. Others had turned away. Others had gone out.

They weren't with them. They had left. So Timothy was a most remarkable, most remarkable young man.

Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing, here's something that's important, dear brethren, knowing of whom thou hast learned them from. We have much to do today. There are believers, there are men and women, excellent assembly Christians.

And I give this out, dear young man, dear young woman, as a very concerned for you. You have a computer. You know how to use that far better than I do.

You could run circles around me with what you know how to do on that pooter. But there is something that alarms me, and that is on that pooter, you can tap into websites that might sound good, that the ministry that is there from these Christendom speakers, from Christendom in general, that these men might sound good in their theological doctrines. But you be very careful because there are people that are being swept away with information that comes across the Internet.

That is why I emphasize, but thou, O man of God, 2 Timothy chapter 3, thou hast learned these things, and from whom thou hast learned them. And I thank God through Iowa that I have sat for years, many years, from men. They listened, I listened, I learned from these men.

We still have some of these men. They're here. Most of them are gone, and I miss them because they gave me the material.

About the New Testament assembly that we've been reminded of, thank God for men that sit with us yet that are giving us material to encourage us in the local church. Not only was this man with us, not only was Joseph with us, but he was a young man, committed and devoted. Give yourself time while you're young, dear young man.

While your brain is sharp, while the mind is keen, take yourself by the hand and have that little sanctuary, and get alone, get alone with your God. You have a flock that you're going to feed. Some of those older men that you are linking with in the assembly, some of those overseers, they'll soon be taken away, and they'll have to have somebody that will hand the torch down.

Young man, you're going to have to feed the flock someday. You're going to have to know what it is to stand up and to minister New Testament teaching. Are you ready? And when these older men pass away, it's too late to get ready.

You want to be ready long before they leave. So tremendous responsibility. I never dreamed that when I stepped on the overseer's ship of Marian, I never dreamed that there were things there that I had to learn.

And I sat there three years listening, learning, and thank God for those years where I learned. Well, dear brethren, before the brethren tap you on the shoulder, do the work now, be ready before the time comes. So not only is Joseph with us, not only is he a young man, but he's a servant.

You notice that it says in verse 12, with us a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard. Thank God for younger people who are willing just to be servants, who are willing just to take orders, who are willing just to pass on, who are willing just to carry out without question. Mr. Dobson told a story many years ago.

A slave. The master says, take those bricks off of that pile and put them over there. And that day he did that.

The next day, the master says, take those bricks and put them where you got them. And the slave did that. And the next day, the master says, take those bricks and put them back where you got them the previous day.

What was he teaching the slave? To follow orders. Thank God for younger people who are willing to be on deck, who are willing to just to take orders, who are willing to be subjects, who are willing to just to fill in, who are willing to follow orders and to carry on, and to carry on in the little measure in which they know. Not only number one with us, not only was he a young man committed, not only was he a servant controlled, but he was told, he was told the character and the deportment, I'd like to suggest that this might bring out.

There were things about Joseph that stood out. And obviously, that which that they saw, the presence of the Lord was with him. That is why they told him.

They told him. Marvelous when you have a young man. And I want to say, John, what was your mind on this? We have one of them in the Ankeny Assembly.

Thank God. What is your mind on this? Why? Why do we do that? Because in him, in him, there is something that is above others. There's something, there's a spiritual grasp.

There's a spiritual laying hold of something. He's got something. Where did he get it? I'll tell you, he didn't get it in the bowling alley.

He didn't get it on the soccer field. He got it with an open book and with a Bible. His character, what really convinced Potiphar that this was a special man, it was the presence of God.

Marvelous thing when you see a young couple, when you see a young man, and as he handles himself, as he conducts himself, as he moves in and out amongst God's people, as he rises to give thanks to God, as he rises with an open book in his hand, you can simply see something special, something beautiful, something wonderful, the presence of God. Servant, they told him. Why did they tell him? Because there was something very, very special.

Lastly, number five, you'll notice that it says, our verse not only told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams. He could interpret. It was him that could communicate.

It was him that communicated the truth of God. So younger people, can I encourage you today to give of your time. Give of your time to communicate the truth of God, to be able to continually be a help, and to be able to go on for the Master Himself.

There's about five young men that I hope are here today. They're in the Dunkerton Assembly. You know what they do on Tuesday night? Those five or six or what is it, seven? Let's just say five.

On Tuesday night, they're over at one of the brethren's house. What are they doing? Internet? Facebook? No. They have a Bible reading on Wednesday night.

They're studying on Tuesday night the chapter that they're going to talk about on Wednesday night. I don't know who suggested the idea, but I think we need to take that boy out, whoever suggested it, or the overseer out for a steak dinner. Thank God for young men who are willing to come aside and to give of themselves, if only one hour, too wonderful, but if only for one hour, to pour themselves over the book in view of the next night's Bible reading.

Thank God there is with us today young men, young women, we thank God for you. May you go on for God. May you prove to be a real shining light and a help in days to come.