A Fruitful Life - Mark Yoder | KFW 2021

I count it a privilege to speak to you young men. I still feel like I'm a young man, but when I look in the mirror it doesn't quite look like it. But young men, your life is before you.

And Brother Dale read that verse about God's call. God has called each one of you.

And you've probably thought of this, you know you're all unique. You know there's never been another person exactly like you. In all the thousands and millions of people, no one has been exactly like you.

Well, that's what I felt around my legs. Kitty, kitty, kitty.

You better get into the pulpit and lay down and take a nap so you don't interrupt.

Now the kitty's gone. But you know there's no one else exactly like you. Never has been, never will be. You're unique.

You have connection with people, friends with people, connections here, connections there. There's no one exactly like you.

And there's only one life, only one time. How did Brother Phil say last night on the gravestone, "A date here and a date here and the dash between"? We're in the dash. And you only get one time at it, only one time.

And it's up to us, it's our choice, it's our decision what we do in our life.

Before you were born even, God had a purpose for you.

And the one thing is your physical body. You were born of Mom and Dad, the physical body. And this is a mystery, but when God, when the conception in your mother's womb, God decided the person He put in there.

And the one thing is your body and the other thing is your person.

But you're unique, you're a person, and like Dale said, you're called by God. How would it be like if I was going to say the President of the United States, but I'd like to maybe change that, someone like that would say, "Hey, I need you.

I want you." I'm trying to think of another name I could use because I'm not sure if I'd want to be called by the President of the United States. But if someone important says, "Listen, you." That's the way it is.

In your circumstances, in your family, in the body He gave you, the family He gave you, the place you are, God says, "You. I need you. I want you." And it is a challenge, it is a wonderful thing. Only one time. And I want to encourage you young men to go at it with all your heart, give it all you have. Just make sure you do the right thing.

But give it all you've got. There's only one chance, one opportunity. And you're called by the King of Kings. And how will I live it? That's my choices, my choice.

I'd like to encourage you to give it all your energy, but to the real cause. We can get sidetracked, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:12.

This is a verse directed to Timothy, but it's directed to the youth and to us.

What if we all stand and read it together? 1 Timothy 4:12. Try to read it slowly and read it together. "Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

You may be seated.

Have you ever felt that someone despises you because you're young?

Have you ever felt you almost resent it that someone didn't put much importance in you or sort of neglected? We understand that. But you know what's the most serious thing is when you yourself neglect your youth, when you yourself don't put importance on your life.

We have 24 hours in a day, seven days a week, four weeks a month, 12 months in a year. And how many years? We don't know. We don't know. 60 years, 30 years, 64. I was in the COVID board and I committed it to Lord. I thought this might be it, 64 years, and I move on.

It was a good experience. I worship God through that. But we have, you don't know, we don't know how many years you have it, you know how long your life's going to be. But I'd like to challenge you in the joy, the thrill is to give it all I've got for our real cause. You know what if you'd come to the end of your life and feel like you've wasted your life?

If I could just do it again.

We've all experienced that on short-term experiences where you say, "I blew it. I should have done something differently." But now we're looking at your total life. You know whatever that is, it's going to be 30 years. A young man, a good friend of mine, he was, I think he was 32, 33, and he discovered he was full of cancer.

And the doctor said, "Too late." He was one of these tough guys that didn't want to admit that he was sick and didn't go to the doctor until it was way too late. And I told him some people live 50 years, 60, some live, and some live 32, get ready to die.

And he did. Beautiful experience, beautiful experience. He got ready to die and just the day he died when he was, I asked, "I asked Alexis, are you ready to go?" He was struggling to breathe with a smile on his face. He said, "Yes, I'm ready to go."

His was only 30, I forget now, 33 or so. We have no idea how many years we have. But if you want to live your life to the fullest and do the right thing, do it now. Don't wait for later.

Do it now. Be an example of what a believer of Jesus Christ is like. Sometimes we wish, and I understand, I did that too, sometimes we wish we'd have a different circumstance. If I would only have different parents or a different church, if I'd have a different body, if I would be just anything that's not just me. But you know that's not the issue. The issue is God made you where you are and the way you are and put you where you are. And the thing we have to each do is what does God want me to do? Right here, what does God want me to do?

And in a group like this, I don't know where all you're from. But God designed a purpose for you right where you are. The future, we don't know.

I've been through things that when I was young I didn't know I was going to be getting there. You don't know what else coming. But right now, give it all you've got. Go full for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Be an example.

I think I said this the other day, but the beginning of my time in Chachagua and starting to make friends in the town there, it was new people and I was making friends. And I had this problem that because I have blue eyes and light skin, light skin is not as much my blue eyes gave me away. And then I tried to speak Spanish well enough they couldn't detect it, but that's hard to do. But I was looked at as a foreigner.

I still am because of my blue eyes. I could tell you where I was driving in an old Land Rover and I said, "Lord, I wish I could, why didn't I have brown eyes? I'm somehow hide a little bit and not look as much like a foreigner." You know that? It's not always the best thing to look like a North American.

Threw that in for an extra. But I said, "Lord," and then the Lord spoke to me. He said, "Mom," it wasn't audible, "but just be what Jesus would be in your body in Chachagua." What would Jesus be with blue eyes in Chachagua? And I changed that for you.

Your body, you know the body we have is fascinating. When you study the DNA, the possibilities in DNA is incredible. Have you ever studied that? The possibilities, and it was designed, the nose you have, the hair I have, the mouth I have, big, little, sometimes our weight issue, we have a little bit to do with that. But you know some, the body I have, so many things about us was designed.

We had nothing to do with it. What would Jesus do? What does Jesus want to do in you?

Would you wish he could tell you? "Hey Jesus, what do you want me to?" I was just thinking about that the other day in Chachagua. Maybe it was after my COVID experience. I was thinking, "Am I doing what God wants me to do?

Or am I wasting my time?" And we don't know the future and that's not the important thing right now. Right now, where you are, there's something for you to do right there and give it all you've got. If you have a struggle with your father or your mother, you have a struggle getting along with some ministers, some other people, people at the job, well, right now one of the best things you can do is learn how to relate well to that person.

Years ago, before I was married, well, when I was going to get married, I was working with a man. He was a nice man. When we were off the job, he treated me great. We were good friends. But on the job, I don't know, was it a medication he took or what, he was an older man and he'd get all worked up and he'd yell at us workers.

I mean, he yelled at, I never had people yell to me like that. And he'd yell at me and he, sometimes his demands were unreasonable. I think it was partly because of a medication he was taking that got his nerves all worked up. But anyway, I was not used to that.

And he couldn't stand to see any of us workers. We were working at a sail barn and a sail barn has a lot of things to do on sale day. And he would want this and he'd come out and he'd yell at us and do this and put us at things. And sometimes it wasn't even reasonable and the workers, they'd grumble and complain.

But I decided, "Hey, this is an opportunity. I'm going to take this opportunity to learn how to respond like Jesus would." One day he asked us, "Do you want to wash a truck?" And the other worker said, "That is un," it was cold. I mean, you get cold weather up here, don't you? It was pretty cold and he asked me to go to wash a truck with cold water and the other worker said, "How in the world does he do that?"

I said, "I'm going to do it with all my heart." And it was such a wonderful experience. One time there was a place to crawl down underneath some scales. Some of the other workers said, "I'd never go down there. There's rats down there. I won't go down there." Well, he asked me to go. I think he thought I would and I did. In the name of Jesus, here we go, down underneath there and doing some difficult things. You know that became a wonderful experience for me.

Yell at me.

But I decided I was going to use that as an opportunity to become like Jesus and to grow. Doing things that, and you know when I left after we were married then and I left and went back to Costa Rica, when I said goodbye to him, I cried more saying goodbye to him than I did to my own father-in-law.

Because that type of relationship of submitting to him and honoring him and just doing it with joy, it did something between us. It's interesting. But you know you have a difficult circumstance, look at it. This is an opportunity to develop. What Jesus wants you to develop. To be, you think your father's hard to live with?

That's a good question. Who's hard to live with? You or your father? Well, we don't need to get into that. But what we need to look at is whatever the difficult circumstances, you can develop the ability. I remember another time I was working with a man that was, it was hard to work with him. He would just constantly be picking at me and telling me this and correcting me and correcting me and correcting me. It was just sort of hard to work with him.

And then again the Lord brought that thought, "Hey, this is an opportunity. I'm going to do it with joy. I'm going to do it and humble myself and just enjoy myself and do everything he tells me to do, do the best I can." So wherever we are, right where you are right now, I'm not talking about sitting on your bench here, but when you get home right now is a beautiful place for you to develop the character of Jesus Christ in your life and become an example of the believers. A believer is a person who believes in Jesus and imitates Jesus, is a disciple of Jesus, become like Jesus. So right now where you are, you make that your goal, "I'm going to develop to be like Jesus."

And when unreasonable things come to your life or difficult things come, you say, "Okay, every time something difficult comes, say, 'Okay, here's my chance. Here's an opportunity to develop the character of Jesus.'" Try that. Temptations, difficulty, "I want to be like Jesus, an example." And you know what will happen around you? People will look at you and say, "Hey, this young man, something about him."

We can all do that. You don't have to have a lot of money. You don't have to be real, I'm thinking of a Spanish word again, handsome. You don't have to be handsome. You don't have to have a lot of education. You don't have to be very smart.

Some of us are not as smart as others. You know I consider I'm a lot less smart than my brother Paul, even my wife, I'm always smarter than I am as far as intelligence goes. But it's not important.

We can all do it. We can all commit ourselves to things that are important and to be what Jesus wants me to be right now. And if you are what Jesus wants you to be right now, there's no telling where he's going to take you in the future.

There might be some of you here like what Dale said the other day, there might be some of you here the Lord's calling now to a mission field and there's some interesting situations. We need some tough young men. There's some places in the mission field that not everyone can handle it.

The physical strain and sometimes going without things, without all the accommodations that we have here. You know the North Americans, especially you up here, we're right behind you. Costa Rica is just right behind you. We're catching up with you actually. But you know we have so many things, we have so much money, we have so many things. I mean, we can just live such ease and pleasure and fun. It's so nice.

Would you be willing to sacrifice a bunch of that and go to an outback difficult place? Walk around with a backpack on your back with a toothbrush, toothpaste, and one of those $0.99 deodorants. What about it? Forget about the expensive colognes.

Too bad, I'm getting old so I have to carry a bunch of pills with me too. But anyway, but you know would you be willing to that? What if God would call you? Now, some of you, God's going to call you to stay right where you are and be like Jesus right there. But the beautiful thing about this, if you have a goal to become like Jesus, we can all do it. We can all commit ourselves to Jesus and say, "Jesus, just help me to respond the next time Dad scolds me the way I don't like it. The next time this happens, the next time the boss, the next time the people I work with, they do something I don't like."

Make a goal that every time you're going to intently show what Jesus would do. Oh, life gets exciting. Life gets exciting.

It's worth it.

Times are evil. We're coming, I don't know. Sometimes I think the end is right here. The way circumstances look in this world, it seems like the end of the world is just any day. I don't know. God doesn't tell us.

But I'd like to encourage you, if it is not, what if we're going to be here yet another, let me see, on an average, you young men or what? 20? Let's say 20. What if we're going to be here, what if you're going to be here another 40 years to about my age?

This world is getting worse and things are getting more difficult to have our faith in God. But you are called, let's say there's a next, I think, well, maybe Lord wants the next 40 years and if ever, He wants people to rise up and shine, to be like Jesus and to do it boldly.

I'm not talking about being proud and outwardly aggressive on people, but to have the courage to be different. Don't be afraid to be different. That's what's worth it. Just to be like all the rest, there's no honor to be like that. Be like all the rest and just do everything like everybody does. Anybody can do that.

But to stand up and be something different, maybe even in your church, I mean, sorry, in the world, the people you work with, maybe even in your church.

You can make a goal to be the most committed and be in a good example in your own church. Please don't just follow the crowd.

Who was saying, oh, this morning in our prayer group, someone was saying he witnesses to college students and he was surprised to find out that college students, how did he say? I'll say it in my words, they don't think much. Do you know something? Most people don't think much.

In my experience, most people don't think much. They just follow the crowd. They just bum along behind the others. Just do what everyone else does. I want to encourage you to stop and think and make some serious decisions what you want to do, who you want to be, and where you're going. Think, please think.

Most people don't. Most people just follow their nose. No, they follow other people's noses. They just follow around and bum around after the crowd. Hey, that's no honor. There's no glory to that. I mean, anyone can do that. The whole world does it.

All these fads and fashions, these wild fashions, purple hair and tattoos all over and people just following the crowd. There's no honor to that. I'm calling you and Jesus is calling you to stand out and be a little different than the rest. That might even be in your own church group. Unfortunately, but it is that way. In our churches, we have people that are more committed than others.

And you can pick them out pretty fast, the way they look, the way they talk, the things they do. Don't follow the wrong crowd just as I'm going to serve the Lord and be all the way for Him.

You, you be an example. You. You don't have to be very smart to that. You don't have to have a lot of money. You don't have to be handsome. You don't have to have a lot of education. But you can decide, "I'm going to be an example to others."

You have younger brothers. If you don't have younger brothers, there's other younger men, younger than you in the church group or around you. Our young boys need heroes. Need heroes to follow. My boys are getting older. My youngest son is 27.

Dark is 25. They're getting a little older. Now I'm challenging them to be the heroes. But here's Brother Linwood. I know him. He's my wife's nephew. I remember the first time I met you, Linwood. I was just a little baby.

I think he was just starting to walk. But you know what? I know Linwood and I admire Linwood and he's a person I could tell my, I could tell your sons or whoever who has boys, "Hey, follow Linwood.

Follow Linwood." And if, now I'm talking to the fathers, maybe you could, someone in your church that's a hero and is a good example say, "Hey, would you please take my son fishing or do something with him? Would you please, because I want my son to be with you because you're a good example."

Now, what I'm saying is you be that person. That every young person in the church can follow you and say, "This is the man I want to follow." Fathers should be that too, but I'm not talking to fathers now. I'm talking to you. That you're an example in your youth group that's worth looking up to and worth following. And someone could say, "Let me see. Your name is Andrew?" I can hardly read that distance. And a father would say, "Hey, Andrew." Or, "Hey, Andrew. Would you mind just taking some time with my son?

Would you mind just taking off an afternoon with him? Take him to eat pizza or..." I'd rather go to the outdoors. I love the outdoors. Take him for a hike. Give him a hard hike. I can't do those anymore, especially after COVID. But you take him out and give him a hard hike. Give him a difficult time outdoors and just, and those young boys say, "Andrew is a hero." How old are you, Andrew? 19. Andrew is a hero. I don't know you, Andrew. I have no idea. But you know what they say? "Andrew is a hero. Follow Andrew."

I like my boys to be with Andrew. And I'm just using him as an example. He's sitting right here looking at me. But that could be all of us. That should be our goal, that I'm a person that is an example to the younger ones and I want to be a blessing and encouragement. Don't just go for the mediocre. Don't just go for being a cheap, follow the crowd type of person. Just follow the crowd. Anybody can do that.

A dog can do that. Just follow what the other dogs do. But to be a person committed that's outstanding in his values, in his commitment, the way he lives, the way he thinks, that's a challenge. And it's open to each one of us.

Different ways, world different. Some of us talk a lot. Some of us talk too much. When I talk so much, I often took my foot in my mouth. So some of you are quiet. That's okay. You don't have to talk a lot.

Just be a quiet man, a quiet example, committed to the Lord Jesus Christ with all our gifts. It doesn't matter which gift you have. Just decide you're going to be like Jesus Christ.

And you're going to live in a way that other people say, "This is someone I'd like to imitate. I'd like to become like him." You. Yes, you.

True fruit. Brother Dale was talking about the fruit thing. Fruitful lives. I'll just throw this in. What is fruit that's worthwhile?

You men up here in North America can make more money probably than about anywhere else in the world. Maybe go to Alaska or maybe some other places. I don't know. You can make more wages. I don't know. But you men can make more money than most people in the world.

You know what? You get to be an old man. You come to the end of your life, all the money you made is not worth a dime.

Make money. Work. If you do something, do it right. Do it right. Do it well. I'm not against making money, but that should, please, that that would not be your goal. Please. That's a very low goal. To make money is shooting too low. Shoot higher, please.

If you work, do it right. Do it well. Provide for your, you can start saving for your marriage that's coming up maybe. You can, you know, or whatever. You can use your money then to support the Lord's work in other places. Your money doesn't have to be a problem. The problem is if money is your goal.

And if your goal is, "I want to have one of those," I don't know if any of you did, one of those last pickups, one of those, at home it's the big Dodge Ram.

Anybody gets in one of those Dodge Rams, wow. At home, I don't know about up here. One time, I ride motorcycle. I don't have one. I did years ago, I had this little hundred, I forget now, was it Suzuki or Yamaha. But I had this little motorcycle. One time, a friend told me to get on one of the big ones, one of those big motorcycles. I forget what I was going to do. I wasn't, I wasn't. And I put the helmet on and I got on that big motor.

I went through town.

There was a Mennonite preacher on the motorcycle. And you know what? I noticed the girls looked at me. The girls, they didn't know who was under the helmet. Who was under the helmet? That's a low goal. I'm not saying you can't have a motorcycle.

But you know, if you get these big cars and big motorcycles or whatever, these big things and they look at you, wow. That's the foolish people that look at you that way. Anyone that has any common sense to know there's more to life than... And Jesus said, "Your life does not consist of the things you own."

Don't go for that. I mean, I'm not saying you have to buy a junkie. I drive a '99 model van. I don't say you have to drive a '99 model. That's okay. You can get someone a little newer. But don't make it your goal to stand out and have the best.

When? The world is going worse. The world needs more than men driving big Dodge Rams. I don't know what's your thing up here. But the world needs something, something shoot higher than that. And make sure that the money you make, that you use it for people. The kingdom of God is people. Now, that doesn't mean that we're going to all be out relating to people, counseling people, working directly with people. But you can be involved. And this activity is an exciting activity here, all these people together. The unit makes all kinds of people to put this together.

I've heard people tell me they just love to organize this. It seems to me like you have some brethren here that love to do it and they do a good job. I've been impressed. I've been trying to learn some things here from the way they organize and do things here. You have some men that know how to do that. But I had one man tell me, he says, "I do not want to preach. I do not want to teach, but I love to organize and work out deep." If you would tell me to take care of the lodging and the food, it makes me nervous.

I just don't think I would not handle that.

Can I say this? I'd rather preach. I'd rather preach and do that. I hope that's not sounding proud. But what I'm saying is we all have different parts. But anyone that participates, you raise your hand to volunteer and you go over there and you help over there. You're part of the project. And what is the important thing in this project?

The important thing in this project is what God is doing in people's hearts. And get excited about what God is doing in people's hearts, your own heart and then other people's hearts. Broken homes, broken families. Oh, there's so many people out there crying and needing help.

Commit your life to helping people because anything that's worth it is investing in people. And like I say, if you have to work, you have to have your money. That's okay. You have to save some money to get married. That's great. I mean, I'm not against making money. But the goal is not just things. The kingdom of God is not buildings. It's not cars. We need those.

But the kingdom is not, you know, I have to have a big building and a lot of big fancy cars and I need a big this and a big that. No, the kingdom of God is people. So commit yourselves to helping people. And you, you, even if you don't talk much, you can make friends to someone in your church, in your neighborhood. Years ago, there was a little boy and he didn't, you know, looks. He was... It's not important to me. I'm just saying this as an example because I think that was part of the problem. He didn't look quite like some did. He was a little different. And I remember back when we used to have just gravel roads.

We had better roads. Now, I'd come by with my old Land Rover. And sometimes he'd stand beside the road and throw rocks at me.

This little boy, this little guy like this and throw rocks at me.

I said, "What's going on with this little boy?" He's like, "You know what I did? I started to wave at him, smile at him, be friendly to him. He quit throwing rocks at me. He's not converted yet, but he's been to church a few times. He still respects me and loves me. I don't know if he remembers the rocks, but I do." You know, the little boy, is there anyone in your life who's sort of a misfit? He has a hard time fitting.

You know, there's a lot of people around you that need a friend. And everyone of us can be a friend to someone. Might be in your church group. You know, each church group, it shouldn't be that way. But sometimes in our church group, we have people that are not quite as accepted. Have you ever noticed how the little cute little boys and the cute little children get all the attention?

Still worse, how all the cute girls get all the attention. That should not be that way. You should be a friend. You can be a friend to someone. You can encourage someone. Everyone of us can do that. Some of us will talk more and make, you know, but we can all be friends. And being a friend to someone, you can change a life.

Someone in your area, you know, we each have sort of an area we function in. In your area, there's people that you could maybe love and take time for. You don't have to do some serious theological studies with him. If you want, you can have a Bible study with him. But there are persons in your life that just... Caring for them. Just taking the time to be his friend. I had people in my life that did that. They just come. And I don't know if you do as much here as we do at home. We do that a lot. Put our arm around people.

That's part of our culture. And I can hardly talk to people without doing that. So, you know, but if someone just comes around and puts his arm around and says, "Hey, how's it going? What have you been doing?

Hey, would you like to go for a hike? Or would you like to go fishing? Would you like to do something with me? Want to ride with me? I'm going to take a trip. Want to ride with me?" Ask your dad and see if you can make a difference. And some people, you can change their life. They feel alone. And when people feel real alone and feel like no one cares for them, feels like they're sort of out, they can easily slip out and move out. And you can make a difference by being a friend to the ones that don't have many friends. You know, there's, in our youth groups, even here, I don't think it should be happening here much, but in our youth groups, there are certain people that are more popular than others.

The man that can crack jokes and, you know, he can say things and sort of... And there's others that are sort of quiet and maybe feel like they don't fit quite. Look for those and be a friend to those people. We have lots of different ways and things we can do to focus on people.

And I'm not saying you shouldn't make money. I'm not saying you can't have your hobbies. I have a hobby. And I love to take bird pictures. I like birds. And I haven't had a chance here yet. I heard some this morning. I was saying, "Oh, I haven't even had..." These men, they work me hard here. They keep me going.

They give me a little break. I'd go out and look for some of your birds, but I haven't had time. Next week, I will. But I have a hobby that I do on the side, and I enjoy taking pictures of birds. I have a little... I don't have one of those big expensive cameras. I don't need an expensive one. I have a good time with a cheaper one. But I have a good... There's nothing wrong with having hobbies.

But I would ask you a question. Is the hobby worth all the money that some people put in hobbies?

Hunting? I'm not against hunting. I like animals. I'd have a hard time shooting a deer, I think. And yet, if I'd live up here the way you have with all the deer around, I might go hunting and put some meat in the freezer. And I'm not against that. I'm not... But I'm not sure about the people that spend thousands of dollars just to go out and hunt and... It really doesn't provide much food. It's just a thing of... Those are values you need to think about. And I want you to think about it. You know, there's... I'm not against a hobby. We all need sort of a good hobby. And you can use your hobby to connect with people.

I had this one young man. We were discussing something about birds. I told him about... He's a tour guide. He works with tourism. And I told him about migration. He didn't know anything about migration, birds. I don't know why he didn't. We get all the migrators down there. But then I told him that I love nature because when I love nature, I worship God.

For me, I would be with nature. I worship God. And then I had some email contact with him, and he tapped into that. You know, I like that. I'm worshiping God. You can use your hobbies to be a blessing. You can invite someone young to go with you and make it a ministry. I'm not against hobbies, but I'm going to challenge you to stop and think about putting all that money in that. There's a lot of things like that. What do your shoes cost? I heard at home someone, just the other day, they were saying he bought a pair of shoes that cost 80,000 colones. That doesn't mean much to you, does it? 80,000 colones is about...

Hey, Dale, you're better at math. 120, 120. Oh, that's not much. Your shoes cost more than I do. But anyway, I'm not saying 100. But there can people spend a crazy... Down there, that was a lot. I said, "I would never buy shoes for that price." And I'm not saying 120. Sorry. I know that your shoes up here are better quality too. And I'm not going to quote figures. That's not the issue because I don't even know. My sons are wiser. They lived all their life with their father who was always saving pennies and buying the cheap things. So my son, they don't do that. They make sure... They don't overdo it, but they make sure they buy something good.

They've learned from me. But you know what I'm saying? You're getting these expensive shoes that cost way beyond a good shoe. You're spending money for things that really, you know... If Jesus were standing beside you and watching you, how would you feel?

All the hungry people all over the world, all the needs that are around the world. You should think about that and how you spend your money. And I think that the crowd I'm looking at now is not... I'm pretty sure that is not carried away with that. But I just want to encourage you.

Even that is something important. Money, sports, pleasure. It's not wrong to enjoy a game.

I used to play volleyball. I sometimes do. If I play volleyball with the youth, I'm sort of a clown, you know, because I float up and I've got some extra weight on me and I have a hard time getting up. But anyway, it's not wrong to play a game of volleyball. It's not wrong to play a game together. Our church group gets together and they play games. But when you play a game, make it a thing not of competition. Make it a thing of... There was this game... Oh, I don't... It's like volleyball, but you knock a ball over. There's like a whole bunch of plastic pipes. I can't even think. And you knock this ball back and forth.

Have you seen that game? Anyway, we were playing that with some of my brothers-in-law and myself and a bunch of children. And we had so much fun, especially me and one of the brothers-in-law. We decided to just encourage the children. "Come on, do it. Do it. Come on." And we were just having... And everyone was having fun. We didn't care who was winning. We just had fun together.

That's the way to play, right?

Have a good time together. Get the old men in there, the young men, the children, and encourage. "Come on, Teal. Come on." Not this singer. "Come on. You have to do this right." You know? "No. Enjoy it. Games are good." I'm not against games, but make them a thing of encouragement, not competition. Not just, "Oh, I did it that time.

I made a good one and the other one left him down." No, we should be an encouragement. Games are okay if we do them right and not get wrapped up in that thing to where any of these things can get us way off track.

Get us way off track and then we're not an example of men, real noble men. I'm challenging you today to be noble men. Men that the people say, "Hey, that's the kind of man I want my son to be."

Or someone will say, "That's the kind of man I want to marry." A good man, it doesn't make much difference how he looks. It doesn't make much difference what kind of car he drives. It doesn't make much difference what kind of shoes he wears.

But a good quality heart that a woman can say, "I can trust him. I can trust him." Go for it. Go for it, all of you, each in your position. There are some dangers, some distractions. And I'd like to talk... I had 10 minutes yet. I'd like to talk about the big danger we have in, which is pornography.

I can't finish this without addressing this. In a crowd this size, some of you had trouble with this. Hopefully, some haven't. But I'd like to challenge you to stay away from that. If you've had trouble, you have fallen, I would encourage you, please, seek help. I'm really looking forward to what Tim... Now, let me see. I've got to think of his father to think of his last name, but Kiffer has to say tonight.

My heart goes out. I've tried to help, but I want to hear what Tim has to say about helping people that have fallen into pornography and the addiction of... Pornography is a terrible thing. I've laid my hands on married men and said, "God, please, this man could forget all those things he saw.

Cleanse him from all these things so he can really love his wife." I want to try to explain to you, and I'm going to be a little clearer with you, why pornography is so evil and so damaging. Sexual life is designed by God.

God designed it. Man didn't. Devil didn't. God designed sex. But you know, sex is a kind of relationship that you can have only with one woman. I have a wonderful wife. We enjoy our life together. But you know, if I'm gone, she's at home, if I would look for another woman and get another woman in my life, what would happen to my relationship with the precious one I have at home?

Right away, I'd put a barrier in it. The sexual intimacy, the sexual closeness can only be with one man and one woman. You can't have two women and love them both. I asked a man once... That was not my experience. I was, you know, how do men... How do they handle this? How can they handle all these different... Love all these different women? And he was wise because he knew. He said, "The truth is, you don't love them.

You don't love them. You just use them."

So the idea is this for you, and this is each one of you. Well, some of you, the Lord might call to singlehood, and that's fine. That's a high calling. Jesus was single. Paul was single. And I could speak a whole bunch on that, but I'm not going to right now. If God calls you to singlehood, that's great. It's a special calling.

But I just want to tell you all that to understand this, to have a good sex relationship with anyone, it's got to be only one person. And it's got to be with the person, you know, that you love, that you're going to commit yourself to. My wife and I have lived together for 36 years. We've cried together. We've struggled together. We've raised children together. We've had some hard times together, but we're still together. And she's the most beautiful woman in the world for me. She's... Oh, you know, she's my wife.

The sexual close romantic relationship is that with only one woman. What happens if you start on the pornography trail? You see this one. You click on this one, and you click on this one, and you click on this one, and you're seeing all these women.

Don't give in to that. And if you had trouble, stop it because that's going to hinder you. I've tried and prayed for people in their marriages having serious problems because men are just trying to imitate what they saw on the screen.

Pornography is a terrible thing. I want to encourage you all to commit yourselves. Just one woman. And you share that part with her. Who is she? The people I'm talking to you don't know yet. It was exciting, though. For me, it was exciting the way the Lord led, the Lord moved pieces and things. And till the day I got married, I was so confident this is what God did. And it was so wonderful. And it still is wonderful.

But one, one. Not six, sixteen. Ah, how many women have men watched and looked at in the way they shouldn't on the screen? That's hurt. That's damaging.

And I would really encourage you, if some of you... If there's someone here tonight, this afternoon, that has not fallen into that, has not gotten into that, and I hope maybe your father has helped. I do at home. I put some filters on. I try to be careful. I try to save. Because another thing, I have worked with people that have learned that have been stimulated toward homosexuality, toward lesbianism, and some of them I've not even fit to talk about some of the desires that men have that they got off of the screen.

It's satanic. Somehow, it awakens up crazy evil desires. So if you haven't touched that, I would like to encourage you to commit yourself. I will not with the grace of God. I hate pornography. I've never accessed pornography. I'm not saying that bragging, but I'm going to commit to that, and I want to stay to that to the end of my life.

My burden of my heart is trying to help people that have. And I'd like to encourage you, if you haven't, say, "I am not going to." It's awful tempting. It's awful attractive. You know, like there's a trap here, and you want to catch a rat, and you put something on it, like a piece of cheese or some peanut butter, and the rat thinks, "Oh, that smells good," and his little nose twitches, you know they do, and their feelers twitching.